[thucydides]

Chirac badly needed to make this call in order to pull back from his position that was incurring widespread condemnation even in his own party. In the end, Bush had to take the call to avoid being called petty by the press.
But Chirac's motives haven't changed. The French people seem quite content with a deeply corrupt and profoundly immoral leadership, that in exchange for huge amounts of money coming through oil companies like ELF that were given sweetheart Iraqi oil deals, agrees to permit heavy arms exportation to Iraq that contravened the UN sanctions. French behavior in all of this has cost American lives and treasure, and Bush would be remiss to forget it. Certainly, the American public will be slow to forget. What did it for me was polls in Le Monde showing that between 25% and 33% of French actually wanted Saddam to stay in power, and another amount of about equal size simply didn't care. This is Vichy quality stuff: these people are moral pygmies.

[CharacterCounts]

What did it for me was polls in Le Monde showing that between 25% and 33% of French actually wanted Saddam to stay in power,

It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that the same percentage of the French opposed their liberation by the US and Britain in WWII.