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What does the birdy say about why Chirac is so stupid as to let it be known that he would never force Iraq to disarm. It seems to me that he has to know that he is going to surely look like an appeaser of evil once the Iraqi people are free to tell their stories about how evil Saddam is. I mean our generals fully expect many in the Iraq army to join forces with us and fight Saddamm. It sure seems that France would anticipate this or worry to some extent that it might happen. I don't understand why they are being so bold as to basically be giving Saddam a pass when there is such a risk of his evilness becoming even more exposed. Does anyone have this question too? Can anyone answer this question?

What does the birdy say about why Chirac is so stupid as to let it be known that he would never force Iraq to disarm. It seems to me that he has to know that he is going to surely look like an appeaser of evil once the Iraqi people are free to tell their stories about how evil Saddam is. I mean our generals fully expect many in the Iraq army to join forces with us and fight Saddamm. It sure seems that France would anticipate this or worry to some extent that it might happen. I don't understand why they are being so bold as to basically be giving Saddam a pass when there is such a risk of his evilness becoming even more exposed.

Obviously, Chirac is desperate to keep us out of Iraq. We probably won't know all the reasons why until we get in there. It is stunning to what lengths France is going to in order to oppose us here. From sending their diplomats out to uncommitted countries on the UN SC, to threatening Eastern Europe for supporting us, now to encouraging Turkey to not allow us to use their airspace. It looks like they are playing this hand to the bitter end. Their next move is to try to turn Jordan and Saudi Arabia against us, to not allow us use of their bases and airspace. It's frightening how close they are getting to "aiding and abetting the enemy". They have done about everything, short of sending troops to fight for Saddam.

There's probably more to Chirac's kowtowing to Saddam than just the usual French cowardice and need to feel important. Chirac has a very long-standing relationship with Saddam Hussein, going back to the seventies. He was intimately and personally involved in brokering the supply of nuclear reactors and Jaguar fighters to Saddam, for example. Now, it's true that there's a lot of blame to go around here -- real or imagined -- but you have to remember that Chirac is a very corrupt man, and Saddam has always been, historically, very generous to very corrupt men. During Iraq's oil-financed arms-and-infrastructure bonanza before the Iran-Iraq war, kickbacks of up to $100 million were nothing unusual for setting up a big deal. Iraq used Swiss bank accounts extensively to reward foreigners who helped them out. According to UN arms inspector Richard Butler, the Russian foreign minister, Yevgeny Primakov, was one of the beneficiaries of such an arrangement. As for Chirac, what are the chances that he is not and has never been on the take from Saddam? Pretty low, is my guess.