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"The entire world has paid a very, VERY high price for the preservation of French sovereignty, nationhood, and pride. Much too high a price, in retrospect. Why anyone should feel the least obligation to pay them even a moment's attention, let alone anything that costs money or blood, is beyond me. They are owed nothing, absolutely nothing whatsoever."

Stefan . .

I find your "what-ifs" regarding the exhoneration, liberation(s), and wars fought over the preservation(s) of France to be utterly fascinating - remarkable! You are gifted at History (have you thought about writing?).

France continues it's whorehouse-slut legacy of the past several hundred years by managing to suck the world into coming to her miserable rescue at great expense and peril (as you have so very accurately have reflected on).

Tell me then - what do you suppose France is after (or trying desparately to hide) in the wake and fall of Saddam's beastial regime?

Also, how do you see the chips falling for Syria? As you are aware, prior to WWI, Iraq and Syria were a single nation (Assyria).

Best -

Thanks for your comments. Yes, I am aware that present-day Iraq and Syria are only one of many possible arrangements of that part of the Middle East (just as modern France is just one of many possible arrangements of Western Europe). Because most modern nation states don't like to see the system of borders and national identities unravel, there is a strong bias toward keeping things as they are, illogical though they may be. Thus, although neither Syria nor Iraq make particularly good sense as nations, it is unlikely that anything other than their governing regimes will change anytime soon.

I don't know how things will play out in Syria. My perception is since we happen to have some troops on their border at the moment, we are just engaging in a litle bit of opportunistic pressuring of the Syrian regime.

What is France after?

1. Money -- an oversized, unearned piece of the action

2. Power -- preferably at the expense of the US

Pretty much everything else is just a subset of those two big objectives.