>I saw a couple items on the news today. One, that we are telling the Iraqi soldiers how they can surrender, ...
It seems to me that there is a basic assumption here, that the Iraqi soldiers
want to surrender. It may very well be that most of them are sufficiently brainwashed - or patriotic or heroic, depending on the POV - to actually desire a
jihad against the U.S., for instance. IOW, the basic assumption may very well be wrong.
> ... and two, that France might want to participate in the war.
The only thing I read about this (so far) about this, is that this would be very conditional: only if Iraq actually uses WMD.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)