[section9]

As to France and Germany, I suspect that the orders to find every embarassing "MADE IN..." label will be handed down as soon as the ground has been secured.

One would hope so. Indeed, one suspects that what the Frogs and Krauts are really scared of is some American paratrooper running across bank transaction records in the bombed-out headquarters of Iraq's Mukhabarat. Saddam has, in all probability, compromised several leading politicians among the Eurotrash.

The Russians really don't care. They simply want a place at the top table at the end of the conflict. A war actually works in their interest, as they know the Americans will see to their interests, other middle eastern regimes will gravitate to Moscow in search of an "honest broker. A new Iraqi regime will buy cheap Russian hardware for their "new" army. It's what they're used to.

In the end, the Russians are going to come out way ahead.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[steve-b]

One would hope so. Indeed, one suspects that what the Frogs and Krauts are really scared of is some American paratrooper running across bank transaction records in the bombed-out headquarters of Iraq's Mukhabarat.

True. The point of my comment is that, IMO, the Axis of Weasels has sufficiently pissed off Dubya that we will be looking for this stuff with a fine-toothed comb, not merely examining what happens to turn up in the normal course of post-invasion intel analysis.