[prairiebreeze]

**In truth, having to compromise in order to bring its allies along, and fighting by "committee", as they see it, will be harder for the Americans to swallow than any concession by Europe.**

Prairie

I daresay fighting by committee or with the UN won't be attempted again anytime soon.

[Billthedrill]

I agree with most of this - how odd to find it in the Guardian!

I suspect that Chirac's preference for the multipolar model over the multilateral one is simple - France will arrogate to herself a leading role in the former; in the latter she will participate in proportion to her actual strength, not her personal sense of self-entitlement. That is a very different lineup. France's loud and outraged cries of "do you want to live in a world where the U.S. can behave like this?" are failing to drown out similar reservations from other EU members about living in a Europe in which France can behave like this.

[Mister Baredog]

Europe has consciously to set out to win back the confidence and trust it has foregone in Washington DC, foreswearing ineffective high moral lectures and recognising the real destructive weapons threat to us all.

Well now, that is the #1 issue for our President isn't it?

[jonascord]

After you boil off the lard, the UN is going to destroy itself by accepting the leadership role of the US, or it is going to commit suicide, with a French gun. Either way, there is some prime real estate on the East Side that will be open, soon.

[Paleo Conservative]

Europe must "belong to the French perspective", which sees Europe acting as a "Gaullist"

I see it as galling!

[ellery]

bttt

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Jim Noble]

>>That is why it is crucial for the UN to act decisively in implementing resolution 1441 this week, not because American arguments must prevail but because American unilateralists must not feel vindicated<<

Yippie-kai-yay, motherf*****s