Saddam and the French Connection

Amazing info about just how deep inside Saddam's pocket were the French:

Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, told the ISG that the "primary motive for French co-operation" was to secure lucrative oil deals when UN sanctions were lifted. Total, the French oil giant, had been promised exploration rights. Iraqi intelligence officials then "targeted a number of French individuals that Iraq thought had a close relationship to French President Chirac," it said, including two of his "counselors" and spokesman for his re-election campaign.

And here's what Kerry said about getting France and Germany to join the coalition:

If the president had shown the patience to go through another round of resolution, to sit down with those leaders, say, "What do you need, what do you need now, how much more will it take to get you to join us?" we'd be in a stronger place today.

Speaking of coalition of the bribed... Is Kerry suggesting we were outbid in the competition for French support?

Than there's this gem from Tony Blair:

"Just as I have had to accept that the evidence now is that there were not stockpiles of actual weapons ready to be deployed, I hope others have the honesty to accept that the report also shows that sanctions weren't’t working," he said.

I hope so too. But I doubt it. I was stunned to hear Kerry saying Bush should have let the inspectors (and thereby, the sanctions) continue for an unspecified amount of time. In the first presidential debate, Kerry said "We had Saddam Hussein trapped". Yes. Unfortunately, we had the whole population of Iraq trapped with him. Doesn't anyone else remember how evil the US used to be for insisting on sanctions? All the poor, starving Iraqi children and whatnot. The situation was untenable. It seems that the plight of the Iraqi children was compelling only when the solution was to drop the sanctions and let the French collect on their oil contracts. When Bush came up with another solution(Iraqi freedom from sanctions and from Saddam), suddenly we're supposed to believe all those happy, healthy, kite-flying Iraqi moppets were benefiting greatly from the humanitarian sanctions regime.