There are no hard feelings for the general public of France here. I think most of the "anger" is with the French Gov't. I think the Franch [gov't] has this knack of creating a problem and leaving for other to solve. I think colonial "problems" you mentioned are because Franch didn't have the stomach to see things through. Instead they leave a mess behind for others to clean up.

Many who support Bush don't necessarily agree with alot of things he stands for. We all know war is a horrible thing, and no one wants war, but many Americans (at least the Bush supporters) believe that somethings are fighting for.

WMD's is looking like it was a mistake, but who knows for sure? If nothing else this war has stopped Saddam from killing and torturing tens of thousands of his own people. I know this sound weak now, but I think history will show this to be true.

In my opinion United States supported Iraq during the Iraq/Iran war because the United State didn't want either one of these nation to be too dominant in that area. They wanted balance for stability. And who knew Saddam would turn out to be such a mad man?

I am however beginning to see, as the reports come in, that the main reason the big European nations rejected the current Iraq war was because they didn't want the world to find out about the "oil for money scandle".




>Hi dean,
>
>>Why don't give what their motives were then?
>
>I won't answer for Russia. But for France i have to...
>
>Here In France and a sizable part of continental Europe, there are quite a number of people to believe that Bush went for the "oil money". But of course THIS IS WRONG. And those who try to make us believe that are foolish. Bush went there to protect America from terrorism. And for this he should be respected.
>
>But there is an organised press campaign in the states as well to let you, US citizens, believe, that our continental governments did not support Bush for the very same reason, money (either for oil, weapons and what not). THIS IS HIGH-END MANIPULATION. France supported saddam, sure very highly, at a time the US did, from 19975 to 1990. The war did change everything. History will provide evidence for this. Too late alas.
>
>Call us cowards. But our govenment decided not to go this time (remember that we were on your side in 1990) in order to avoid getting trapped into the kind of quadmire our country has suffered in its long colonial history (Vietnam, Algeria to name a few of those mournful experiences). Concerning those events, we're talking big figures for a country whose population accounts for one fifth of the US.
>
>Figures for the "Guerre d'Algérie" (we finally retreated from the country):
>- 1,343,000 young French guys enrolled (conscription),
>- over 400,000 professional military
>- 25,000 deaths on the French military side,
>- 400,000 civil victims (at least shared between local algerian people and French civilians),
>
>I could mention the use of torture on both sides and massive destruction of the infrastructure. This can not be forgotten.
>
>I feel grief at some of the argumentation i found on this thread concerning our country.
>
>François