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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zonder who wrote (4468)	11/13/2003 5:37:18 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 20773

What is your point? That maybe some people won't see the forest for the trees.. Or that French couldn't have MUCH more lucrative deals if they stuck by the US and got a piece of the post-Saddam oil action in Iraq? France, and in particular Jacques Chirac, have a 30 years history with Saddam's regime. From personally selling Saddam nuclear reactors, to constantly opposing any military actions against his regime, including initially opposing Desert Storm. France had already been promised the first crack at exploring the huge Majnoun and Nahr Umr fields, potentially an incredible windfall for TotalFina-Elf. And they (and the Russians) were directly warned that they would lose their existing and future oil contracts should they support the US position relative to enforcing UNSC 1441. casi.org.uk And yes.. one would think it would be in their interest to be involved so they could influence events, rather than be seen as politically impotent, especially in the face of the legal authority of the US actions going back to UNSC 678. But maybe, just maybe, there's some interesting stuff contained in those masses of intelligence files captured by the Coalition, which the French might have been afraid to have see the light of day.. What I don't see, is why Chirac was so adamant about spending the past 8 years getting UN sanctions lifted against Iraq, while participating in a unanimous vote (UNSC 1441) declaring Iraq in material breach. Hawk