France and Germany are also trending socialist, and so this is not about anything but the old Cold War rift...capitalism v. socialism.
The danger of Saddam is that he is the Lynchpin which unites the Socialists (France, Germany, Russia, China, North Korea) with the Islamofascists (Al Queda, Wahhabists). THAT is why he must be taken down and the link between the nuclear armed socialists and arabs be severed.
I don't think France & Germany care a bit about the form the Iraqi goverment. As Steyn says in his article: this isn't about Iraq or Saddam.