Reuters holds a roachfest
Reuters' Paris pantload, Mark John, says French suppress schadenfreude over U.S. Iraq woes:

PARIS, Sept. 5 — What is French for ''I told you so?''

With the United States swallowing its pride to seek help sorting out the postwar debacle in Iraq, France and fellow ''Old Europe'' opponents of the conflict can barely resist gloating.

''So the 'Frenchies' were cowardly, ungrateful, naive, petty and self-seeking, were they?'' asked veteran French commentator Regis Debray on Friday.

''If you like. But at least they judged it right,'' he wrote in the daily Le Figaro, catching the mood of grim satisfaction among many in a country where up to 90 percent firmly supported President Jacques Chirac's stance against the war.

For those of you of the youngish persuasion, Regis Debray's main claim to fame is that when he was leading the proletarian revolution in Colombia with Che Guevara, he got arrested and sent to prison, while beret boy got topped. When an article refers to a hemorrhoid like Debray as a "commentator," you know you're in for for a long haul with a port side list.

Chirac bet that even if the United States could win the war, it would need others to win the peace. Washington's call to the United Nations to help end the guerrilla violence plaguing Iraq suggests he was right.

This makes sense. If you're from outer space. The UN's track record of ending guerilla warfare is nonexistent.

Not one peep of schadenfreude (German for taking pleasure in people's woes) will be heard in public from Chirac's administration. It has insisted all along that it is in no one's interest for Iraq to descend into anarchy and become a base for terrorists.

Mark John enlightens the unwashed! Thanks pal and you can leck mich am Arsch.

But with memories of anti-French insults like ''cheese-eating surrender monkeys'' flying across the Atlantic a few months back, France is in no mood to send its soldiers into the fray without having a strong say in Iraq's future.

Circle the wagons, folks. The Frenchies will be here shortly to rescue us! The August heat wave must have got to Mark. But I'll pretend. What do the the cheese eating surrender monkeys want?

France has already set out its demands, calling for a fast transfer of power to a provisional Iraqi government and for security to be handed to an international U.N.-mandated force.

It will also want to ensure that any spoils from the reconstruction of the Iraqi economy and its lucrative oil sector are fairly shared out.

It's all about oil!

Someone explain to me again why Powell is screwing around with the UN? It won't be cheaper - we'll still pay for it. It won't be more effective - we're talking the UN and the Euros here. The only reason I can think of is to disarm leftoid domestic critics. As I said the other day, "Dear W, appealing to the asshats isn't a valid reason. They're going to hate you anyhow."