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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (124513)	2/8/2004 10:00:22 PM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Respond to of 281500

And my gut feeling is that I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find France, and possibly Russia, working behind the scenes of some of the turmoil in Iraq. I seriously doubt this, but am positive that France isn't the only country that passively welcomes any trouble we're having in Iraq. China notably is surely delighted at what is going on over there, far from their shores.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (124513)	2/10/2004 12:05:51 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Hawkmoon; Re: "Yep... And my gut feeling is that I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find France, and possibly Russia, working behind the scenes of some of the turmoil in Iraq. I have no evidence to support this, but it strikes me as rather odd that neither nation has yet offered any form of assistance for the purpose of rebuilding that country." Ah, the slow, sure, decent into paranoia. (a) Both France and Russia, like all the other countries with the Iraq paper (including the US with $5 billion), have agreed to reduce the debt in a renegotiation to be performed with the new government. (b) Since France and Russia thought that going into Iraq was a bad idea it should hardly be any surprise that they're not chomping at the bit to get in now. They undoubtedly expect the resistance to continue to target foreign companies. (c) When Iraq does become sovereign again, it will bring France and Russia back, as has been hinted by at least one member of the Iraqi governing council. -- Carl