Chris

Have you read the actual interview? try http://abcnews.go.com/sections/ThisWeek/World/villepin_transcript030302.html

As for "answering" what Mr Wills said: how does one respond to ad hominem slogans?Look at this:

Wills: "Speaking, as we are, primarily of the French government, its oleaginous foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, addressed the Security Council after Powell. Following some initial circumlocutions, the opacity of which could not conceal their offensiveness, de Villepin may have begun exercising the skill France has often honed since 1870 -- that of retreating, this time into incoherence. " and so on...

Fact: de Villepin's address was sufficiently clear to earn a spontaneous eruption of applause from the chamber. Nobody applauded Powell.

Then this:

Wills: "People committed to a particular conclusion will get to it and will stay there. So the facts that Powell deployed, and the pattern they form, will not persuade people determined to be unpersuaded. But Powell's presentation, its power enhanced by his avoidance of histrionics, will change all minds open to evidence. Thus it will justify disregarding the presumptively close-minded people who persist in denying ... what? "

IOW those who are committed to Mr Wills viewpoint are clever and observant; those who disagree are closed-minded fools who should be disregarded. What a sophisticated, intellectual proof that Mr Wills must be right.

You insist that others provide "credible" sources. Review the actual UN speech and actual interview and tell me how Wills' version stacks up.

Regards

JR