[jimbo123]

Freep THE WORM here...

[DoughtyOne]

If that's true, things become a whole lot clearer. During the last week or so, it almost appeared that Chriac was desperate to keep the U.S. out of Iraq. Is it because his regime is going to join the ranks of the pariah state leaderships in the eyes of the world community?

[Centurion2000]

Hell the frenchies are probably even adding the sprayer tanks for free on them in the hopes that more Americans get killed with biochem weapons.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Mirage fighters are useless to the French, they always surrender before they can scramble. Selling them to the Iraqis is just a good way to give them to Iran which is where they will be flown at the first sign of trouble. Chirac is a clever little fart.

[NewHampshireDuo]

Maybe the reason Blix couldn't find anything was because he didn't have a French interpreter.

[averageeverydayjoe]

One thing that I beleive is being overlooked here is that, there are three companies involved in the pipeline that runs from Russia to the Black Sea. There is apipeline that eventually run from Russia to the Black Sea. BP, ExxonMobile, ChevronTexaco. The French and the Germans want to be included but are being blocked by these three companies. The two companies being blocked(ElfFina (French) and RoyalDutchShell (German) are really pissed about this. The pipeline itself has not been completed but the Tee(branch of pipeline) is in place just north of Afganistan. But because of Taliban resistance the junction is not complete. That for obvious reasons is not an issue any longer. The next country in the line would be Iran, who has already started the building of their section. The next country in line is Iraq. Building of the pipeline through Iraq would cut the delivery time in half because the Persian gulf is out of the picture and the route is much shorter. The European countries would benifit as well as the US. This pipeline will boost our economy and and provide an easier path for us to get our oil from Russia. Although it is a very small part of our agenda, it is the biggest agenda on the french and german fronts. They will be basically excluded from all the profits generated via this pipeline. I think that this is their only motivation to veto the war movement. Russia will veto only because they want to gain contracts from these two countries to buy their oil from them. As long as that pipeline is out of the picture Russia can export there oil to these guys directly and make much better profits. Makes sense from a business stand point. BP just purchased a large chunck of the Russian oil companies just last month. If the French and Germans buy the rest Russia is in a good spot. We don't have a choice. Without that pipeline we will continue to be dependent on the Middle east for oil. It cost a lot more to get Russian oil to the US than from the Middle East. That pipeline will give us a way to get it faster and cheaper without the OPEC intervention.

[John H K]

I believe he's referring to spare Mirage PARTS for the old Mirages Iraq already has, but somehow that information mutated into entire NEW Mirages in someone's mind.