The vast majority of US citizens believe, correctly, that France
was/is supporting Saddam. France has been an enemy of the US for many
years.

Like the rest of the world knows, correctly, that the US was supporting
Saddam at a time when he was brutally butchering tens of thousands of his
own people? The hippocracy is laughable. Your moral high ground is a sand
castle built upon a swamp!

This is my one input to this thread - I believe that countries do things in
their own interests 90% of the time and if other folks are getting butchered,
well, that's just terrible. Saddam was seen as the lessor of two evils in the
region, then over the years gained in stature among despots, reaching the
pinnacle of brutality. By then, America had been distancing itself from Saddam
for years. But even as we drew away, other countries embraced him, pointing at
our earlier involvement as a sort of extenuating circumstance for their current
colusion. Plus, our government drilled it into everyone's heads that Saddam
was actively working to either nuke or dust us. With that as a background,
France stood up as defender of Iraq's despot, not its people. The differences
between us became a rift and for the foreseeable future, its going to remain.
America didn't do things in Iraq for the right reason, and neither did France.
The main difference is that we stopped supporting Saddam at some point. France
never did. Both countries were "beating their wife", but at least we stopped.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C====
USN SAR Aircrew

"Got anything on your radar, SENSO?"
"Nothing but my forehead, sir."