unilateralism

France may be under an obligation to help defend the the world against terrorism. France may be under an obligation to free the Iraqis from their bloodthirsty dicataor. France may be under an obligation to make sure the U.N. Security Council isn’t rendered toothless and the United Nations impotent.
France is threatening a veto on the current, watered-down U.N. resolution that says, in effect, that Iraq has had since November to comply with weapons inspectors (which it hasn’t), to disarm (which it hasn’t), and has now missed its last chance to disarm peacefully (which it has). Iraq must now face the consequences of violating 18 U.N. resolutions over the past fifteen years.
France doesn’t care about the issues at hand, so much as they want to see the United States taken down a few rungs. France has been bullying Eastern European countries, telling them that siding with America could seriously jeopardize their acceptance into the United Nations.
France has their own best interests in mind, as their oil companies signed a number of sweet, sweet deals with Iraq that could evaporate if the current regime is overthrown. What’s more, France may be nervous that once the lid is torn off Iraq, documentation may surface that indicates they have been doing underhanded business with Iraq, violating sanctions put in place by the U.N.
France does all this, and yet struts about like a peacock on some higher moral ground. “Sniff, we French are so sophisticated that we no longer see the need for war, sniff.” For France, this pending war is an excuse to tweak the nose of the United States, and they’re gravely disappointed that everyone else isn’t joining on the bandwagon. It greatly jeopardizes the possibility of a Franco-centric European Union, what with so many European countries that willfully and openly disagree with France on important issues. If Europe can’t take the right, French, stance on this issue, there’s little promise that they’ll ‘come around’ and agree further down the road.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that France will back out from its position at the last minute and trust Russia or China for their veto, and thereby save face in the end. If they do, I won’t buy it. I don’t like people pissing in my water and saying its for my own good. I’d have a hard time forgetting anything like that.

they also sold nuclear power and technology to israel. whee.
we’ve sold weapons to both countries as well. what they did isn’t any different then what the u.s. has done. no matter what moral ideas we wrap around it (good vs. evil and all that bull), both the u.s. and france are looking out for their own interests.
too bad as nations we can’t then work constructively together on mutual interests. rather, our administrations sit around and bitch about each other.