It only takes one security council permanent member to scupper everything, and France is going to agree with Russia and let Iran off. What Swedish public opinion thinks of it is as irrelevant as what naked tribesmen in Borneo think of it. As for Germans, no they are not exactly working with US diplomacy in the matter. They want to go slow, slower, molasses, consult, refer, consult, circulate drafts, sleep, anything but make a decision. Oh and after they make a decision they'd like a minimalist travel ban. Oh and if anything ever does go beyond sanctions they will be found sitting on their ass.
[The Saudis aren't going to do jack]
What is your opinion of what we should do with the Saudi Royal Family *after* they refuse to help us and after Iran is free?
I find your take on Chirac's announcement fascinating. This morning I awoke to the German media massively criticizing Chirac for "bringing nukes into the discussion". As usual, the Germans were talking at a 5th grade level. No mention of whether Chirac's words meant that he was for or against Iran getting nukes. This means that you, JasonC, and most any other FReeper, is more worth reading than a German newspaper. But meanwhile...expect Merkel not to actively try to subvert Bush this time. Merkel openly supported the Iraq War in the election campaign of 2002 and her party only lost by 0.5% at the time. Of course, support for the war back then still did not mean support for sending German troops...but even under Schroeder, we did get 2 German spies (BND agents) who won major medals from the Pentagon for secretly giving us a lot of target information when we bombed Baghdad.