(2003-02-27) France Iraq

Some of France's possible motivations for protesting War On Iraq:

• the Christian Science Monitor says domestic constituencies strongly opposed to war with Iraq; leaders' desires to undercut the US on the world stage; lucrative contracts to develop oil fields with Iraq; and billions Iraq owes them in unpaid Foreign Debt.

• Matt Siegfried notes While many countries buy oil from the Iraq Petrochemical Company (IPC, nationalized in 1972), France is the only Western power which has partial ownership in the IPC. The sanctions prevent them from fully exploiting that relationship.

Or maybe they're just humanitarians. Like in Algeria.

(Though I'm in agreement with Joe Klein who said on the Jon Stewart show The French being against the war isn't quite enough for me to be in favor of it.)