The French have got some balls. First, they block the UN from getting involved in the situation with Iraq, and force Bush to make the unpopular decision and go forward without the UN's "approval" and remove Saddam from power. Now that it seems likely that Saddam's reign will soon end, France wants a piece of the post-Saddam Iraq, without risking anything to earn that right.
France's pre-war issue? Iraq had shown no explicit signs of having weapons of mass destruction. The news from the frontline is that Iraqi soldiers died while wearing gas masks, possibly meaning that Iraq meant to use chemical weapons against coalition forces and then send in their protected military units to attack what they expected to be devastated forces, but those troops never got the chance. I fully expect that chemical and biological weapons depots will be discovered after all. Still no response from the French, but now that the conflict may be reaching it's end soon, we really don't need their help, not that we ever did in the first place.
The biggest problem that Bush had going into this war is that he almost certainly knew that Saddam holds chemical and biological warfare munitions and was just moving them around from site to site while UNMOVIC inspectors toured suspected WMD sites. But since he couldn't prove it, and almost certainly not without disclosing confidential intelligence and jeopardizing the lives of American operatives or foreign spies living in Iraq and elsewhere, he had to go this alone, knowing that the reason was just, if not public.
Now, the US and our real allies are almost certain to prevail. France realizes this and forsees the opportunity for massive amounts of rebuilding projects within Iraq that will provide a decent boost to the US and British economies, but knows that they won't be able to reap the rewards of this reconstruction because they balked. So instead of finally admitting their mistake and getting their hands dirty, they want to leverage their position within the UN to step in and control the post-Saddam Iraq. This is an obvious end-around maneuver aimed at not being shutout of the whole opportunity at economic and political gains.
Bullshit. You had the chance, you probably knew what we knew, and now you want a piece without risking your own neck? You knew that we were going to remove Saddam with or without you. We gave you the chance, but you turned your back on us. You have nothing to do with this war, and you'll have nothing to do with the rebuilding of Iraq. You will not gain from the efforts and blood that were spent by others.
Piss off, France.
