I just read more about France, and the suspicion by many of their intellectuals (and remember, Frech intellectuals are held to be the smartest intellectuals for no other reason than that they are French) that France is in decline. One went so far as to claim that France was trying to drag Russia into the anti-Iraq war thing in order to help set up another multi-polar system in which the world is divided between the United States' influence, and the influence of Russia, which would basically follow the French. This would allow the French to remain influential but not have to actually contribute anything substantial to anyone else, a long-time feature of French policy. There are a few problems that will keep something like this from happening. First off, the Russians aren't that dumb. Second, the rest of Europe isn't that dumb, and the EU and euro have tied France to a Europe they thought they would lead, but now are finding that the rest have their own ideas. Third, and the major reason, is military power. The fact is, in any sort of conventional warfare, the United States could probably take on the combined might of just about every other country in the world put together and come out on top. And anything other than conventional warfare, meaning WMD's, would condemn the user in the eyes of everyone else. Basically France has been making a play to gain undeserved influence over world affairs, and the United States ignored them. Now thy ahve even less influence than before, and much of America, one fo their primary trading partners, sneers in their general direction.