Finally, the frustrated British government of Prime Minister Tony Blair lashed out at Jacques Chirac's French regime for blocking a British proposal for disarming Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

"What I find extraordinary is that without even proper consideration, the French government have decided that they will reject these proposals," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

And Duncan Smith, leader of the opposition Conservative party, met with Blair and said afterward that war appeared likely because of France.

"He (Blair) made the reason for this as the fact that the French have become completely intransigent," he said.

1) To build on his campaign to make himself the leader of opposition to the United States in world affairs.

2) To allow France to preserve long-standing lucrative commercial ties with Iraq, which Chirac himself personally helped build in the 1970s.

For instance, Chirac was the French prime minister in the late 1970s who made the deal to have France build a fast-breeder nuclear reactor in Iraq that would have allowed Saddam to develop nuclear weapons. France built it, but a concerned Israel destroyed it in a daring air raid in 1981.

France also sold Mirage fighter-bombers to Iraq, and since a U.S.-led coalition force kicked Saddam out of Kuwait in 1991, France has repeatedly tried to have the UN Security Council lift economic sanctions against the Iraqi dictator.

Oh, yes, and Chirac's France has two other sweetheart deals with Saddam that encourages him to keep dragging his feet on the Security Council for many more months on its inspection of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction.

France has not one, but two signed deals with Saddam to buy Iraqi oil - once the sanctions are lifted. Ah, but that depends on the survival of Saddam, the Butcher of Baghdad, as Iraqi dictator. If Saddam is overthrown by an armed attack, Chirac's lucrative deals bite the dust.

So it's little wonder the peacock-like Chirac is increasingly arrogant and almost triumphant in his threat to use France's veto if a majority of nations on the Security Council backs a U.S.-British-Spanish resolution calling for armed action against Saddam.

And Chirac's sabotage-at-all-costs strategy was even more exposed yesterday when he rejected out of hand Blair's proposal to set six disarmament steps for Iraq that would have a fixed deadline.

"We cannot accept the British proposals insofar as they are part of a logic of war, a logic of automatic recourse to war," was the haughty comment of Dominique de Villepin, Chirac's foreign minister.

Of course, both Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, his ally against Bush and Blair in the Iraq situation, have seized on the situation to build their personal stock as leaders of the anti-U.S. world.

Both Bush and Blair have been extremely patient - in fact, far too patient - in trying to get a majority of the Security Council and even the French, Russians and Chinese to join in action against Saddam's terroristic regime.

But yesterday, Chirac's sabotage move could prove the straw that broke the camel's back. Some British newspapers blasted the French for being untrustworthy and selfish.

Britain's Sun tabloid ripped France in a front-page headline: "Blair Buries Le Worm," its nickname for Chirac.

Believing Chirac's veto threat will protect him from a UN-supported attack, Saddam's henchmen celebrated in Baghdad yesterday.

Bush and Blair " have lost the round before it starts while we, along with well-intentioned powers in the world, have won it," declared the Baghdad newspaper Babil, owned by Saddam's son, Odai. In a front-page editorial, it said:

"Blair's future is at stake now, and his downfall will be a harsh lesson in Britain's political history."

Naji Sabri, Saddam's foreign minister, rejected the British proposal and predicted the Security Council would do the same. As far as a U.S.-led attack was concerned, he boasted:

So as the weekend arrives, both Bush and Blair are likely preparing the last details for an attack to get rid of Saddam and his weapons of mass destruction - chemical, biological and nuclear. That's the job the Security Council keeps dodging.

If Saddam thinks that he is burying Blair and Bush politically, he should expect them to make it a technicolor funeral.

Politically there is nothing to lose in going ahead and nothing to gain by backing off.

Going ahead with the invasion is a crap-shoot but backing off means each will suffer certain defeat in his next election.

Chirac won't gain anything, now... his gambit- to his displeasure- has now failed. In the process, not only has he destroyed France's last vestiges of honor, but he's finally put a knife in the heart of the UN.

For these results, I salute Chirac... He's shot France in the foot- and the result will be fatal...

And to add insult to injury, he won't get a single franc for all of this...

LOL!!!

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