Your point about the Lebanon resolution makes a different point to me. France has a historical relationship with Lebanon. It was the crown jewel of their middle eastern colonies. There is UN backing for foreign presence there – due to a resolution that France wrote.
Yet they can only find 200 troops to send? That will make no difference. If that’s all they had to contribute in Iraq, their support there would have been meaningless as well.
You think Iraq is getting worse; I think it’s getting better. I think Europe wants to see us hurt, and that’s the main reason they’re not committed. We should probably offer them a cut of the reconstruction in the hopes that their greed overcomes their anti-Americanism. What Europe has to lose, of course, is that Iraq as a failed state is susceptible to Iranian influence. The EU doesn’t want Iran to have nukes; they’ve been negotiating for over 3 years and have gotten nowhere.
Maybe they don’t know to open up diplomatic channels.
