1 Don't get too worried about France. They have only ever been in one war where they can claim victory - and that was against... the French. It was a civil war! Seriously, the French will prostitute themselves and sell weapons to the highest bidder before they will defend themselves. "Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordian". D. Rumsfeld.

2 The key to all this boils down to one point: as a rule, any country that ever gets its ass handed to it by MEXICO is no longer allowed to be called a "great power" with a straight face. 300+ years to kick out Spain. Three years to kick out France.

3 Historically speaking, the French lost their civil war, and had to be rescued by a Corsican.

4 I am no fan of France, to say the least, but I am mystified by this. France is seen to do a lot of objectively distasteful things that it considers to be in its best interest, but why this? Trade? And at the cost of aligning themselves with a huge totalitarian government against a tiny democracy? And specifically approving military action against that small island of democracy? I'm floored. Must be hell on the francophiles.

5 They're desperate. Look at that ecomony, 10-12% unemployment (something like that) and of the people employed it's either one in three or one in four who actually work for the govt. The govt there was hoping for the eu subsidy effect but it looks like they may not be getting that. That only leaves one choice - sell anything to anybody who's willing to pay, whether that's nukes to Iran or other military technology to China.

6 move it up a few weeks to late july and your casulaties will drop to zero, the entire french nation will be on vacation so there won't be any trouble getting the humvies down those narrow streets!

7 And those dumb French thought there weren't any WMD in Iraq. I'm boycotting French wine. That'll teach 'em! P.S. Why do we have to have French on our cereal boxes?

8 The July idea is a good one - otherwise dealing with the number of people surrenduring could be an overwhelming problem.

9 Give the french proper credit. They did think Saddam had WMD's. So did the Kurds and Iranians, whom he used them against. (Oops, bad taste to bring that up.)

10 Instapundit has this up: "The Canadian company that Saddam Hussein invested a million dollars in belonged to the Prime Minister of Canada, canadafreepress.com has discovered." Nuance, I guess.

11 Bash away at the French, but one thing they are is consistent. Everything they do or say is for France's benefit. Even when it's something that common sense tells you is wrong, if the French see gain or profit in it for France itself, they will do it. And to hell with the rest of the world.

12 Ted, have you ever Barbara Tuchman's The March of Folly? What you mean is that what the French do or say they BELIEVE is to benefit France, but in many cases that couldn't be further from the truth.

13 Maybe there is a french master plan going on. They know they're hopelessly inept when it comes to anything military, and their diplomacy skills aren't mnuch better. So what sort of strong point does that leave them? Treachery. They want to provide China with military technology - say they do that. The Chinese as a result of all this new equipment go ahead and attack Taiwan knowing europe is on their side (ahem). We then (with the Australians, probably not the Brits) join in. Bad news for the US (in addition to China of course) which on a relative basis puts france/europe at the top. They realize they're incapable of bringing themselves up in the world pecking order, so the plan is to bring the US down. Hopefully we'll decide it's perfectly sensible tho to bomb the crap out of any country that's providing weapons to the enemy - which would mean once again the french screwed up.