[Smokin' Joe]

All I see is the disruption of some cushy kickback scams for a lot of relatively high ranking individuals in France, the UN, and other nations which express opposition to the US disrupting their cash flow.

I can't even give this credence as an hegemony issue, but simply corrupt ministers. Organized crime.

Only by disrupting the US led effort can they hope to reestablish their illicit income.

[Fedora]

Thanks, interesting thoughts. I agree o.c. is an element of it and perhaps the dominant one. Not sure that excludes the hegemony aspect of it, though--could be an overlap between French o.c. and France's geopolitical interests/strategy. You could be right, though--I need to think about it some more. Hmmm--speaking of o.c., wonder if the Union Corse gets a cut of Chirac's bribes. . .