The insults began in the fall of 2002, after France made it clear that it would veto any Security Council resolution, while holding the rights to Iraqi oil. Cui bono?
If Rumsfeld's words were insulting, what were Chirac's, when he said that England, Poland, Denmark, Romania, Georgia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Albania, Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Macedonia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Spain, Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Iceland, and, oh yes, Italy, "missed a good opportunity to sit down and shut up."
As an aside, you will note that much of my personal revulsion towards French hypocricy in foreign policy stems from their economic support of Charles Taylor in Liberia (which informs and supports my opinion of their stance on the Iraq war), a point I've raised here several times without response.
On the question of the forseen or actual difficulty of the invasion, indeed I will tell you flatly that you were wrong. Bush invaded Iraq as part of a multifaceted global military, economic and humanitarian strategy (again I suggest you read Kaplan's _Imperial Grunts_, to start), which has been elucidated time and again by him and his administration. As for Iraq in particular, there were 23 separate counts in Joint House Resolution 114, 17 UN Security Council resolutions, several of them authorizing military action, one broken treaty from 1991, and _six months_ of diplomatic wrangling with France, Germany, Russia & China. Hardly light-headed. Do you really think that Saddam would have stayed quiescent once the sanctions were down, given his history of repeatedly attacking his own citizens as well as his neighbors? You are concerned about American military "hostages"; what about the 30,000/year of his own people that Saddam killed, according to Human Rights Watch? Bush himself repeatedly said, in his 2003 State of the Union address and elsewhere, said that the road would be long and difficult.
As you will know, the US has some small prior experience with invading countries and imposing democracy on them. Just because the process has been difficult and fraught with error and difficulty so far does not mean the goal is not worth trying for! Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good.
The American occupation of Japan lasted almost 7 years, until April 28, 1952, and American troops are there to this day. The American, British and French occupation of West Germany lasted four to ten years, depending on your definitions, and American troops are there to this day. I'll bet you a (Canadian) dollar that the situation in Iraq will be much different in 2013 than it is today.
Re: I'll leave you and <lj user = kulibali> to argue this out
If Rumsfeld's words were insulting, what were Chirac's, when he said that England, Poland, Denmark, Romania, Georgia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Albania, Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Macedonia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Spain, Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Iceland, and, oh yes, Italy, "missed a good opportunity to sit down and shut up."
As an aside, you will note that much of my personal revulsion towards French hypocricy in foreign policy stems from their economic support of Charles Taylor in Liberia (which informs and supports my opinion of their stance on the Iraq war), a point I've raised here several times without response.
On the question of the forseen or actual difficulty of the invasion, indeed I will tell you flatly that you were wrong. Bush invaded Iraq as part of a multifaceted global military, economic and humanitarian strategy (again I suggest you read Kaplan's _Imperial Grunts_, to start), which has been elucidated time and again by him and his administration. As for Iraq in particular, there were 23 separate counts in Joint House Resolution 114, 17 UN Security Council resolutions, several of them authorizing military action, one broken treaty from 1991, and _six months_ of diplomatic wrangling with France, Germany, Russia & China. Hardly light-headed. Do you really think that Saddam would have stayed quiescent once the sanctions were down, given his history of repeatedly attacking his own citizens as well as his neighbors? You are concerned about American military "hostages"; what about the 30,000/year of his own people that Saddam killed, according to Human Rights Watch? Bush himself repeatedly said, in his 2003 State of the Union address and elsewhere, said that the road would be long and difficult.
As you will know, the US has some small prior experience with invading countries and imposing democracy on them. Just because the process has been difficult and fraught with error and difficulty so far does not mean the goal is not worth trying for! Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good.
The American occupation of Japan lasted almost 7 years, until April 28, 1952, and American troops are there to this day. The American, British and French occupation of West Germany lasted four to ten years, depending on your definitions, and American troops are there to this day. I'll bet you a (Canadian) dollar that the situation in Iraq will be much different in 2013 than it is today.