Chirac at it again

Andrew Sullivan notes that Jacques Chirac is less than enthused at the prospect of democracy in the Middle East:

I think Chirac is getting worried that Iraq might blaze a trail. And what would that say about France's historic support for tyranny and colonialism in the region?

Probably more than Monsieur Chirac would care to admit. Along the same lines, here was the reaction of the French Foreign Minister, Michel Barnier, to Tuesday's passage of the US/UK sponsored Iraq resolution by the UN Security Council:

"Washington understood that we have to get out of this tragedy by the high road."

Yes, freeing 25 million Iraqis from Saddam Hussein was a "tragedy". If only we had left them under the genocidal totalitarian barbarism of Saddam, that would have been okay. It's sadly obvious that the French remain far more interested in hoping that the "hyperpower" is proven wrong in Iraq, then they are in combating the conditions that have spawned radical Islamist terror.