Okay -- I had to post a bit of the article referred to in the last post. France was bribed and promised to veto US action in the UN. That's right -- made a promise to Hussein to stop anything the US was doing. These are our allies? These are the people Kerry wants a conference with to decide the future of IRaq? Unconscionable!!

Here is an excert:

To get his way, Saddam gave, in the words of the report, "preferential treatment to Russian and French companies hoping for Russian and French support on the UN Security Council."

That is, he bribed them. He wanted U.N. sanctions ended so he could go back to making chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

France proved to be an easy target. So was Russia.

In the case of France, Iraqi intelligence "targeted a number of French individuals that Iraq thought had a close relationship to French President Chirac," the Duelfer report said. Iraq even toyed with the idea of supporting a candidate in the French elections — though there's no evidence Iraq gave Chirac money directly.

Still, a member of the French Parliament, according to a memo sent to Saddam in May 2002, "assured Iraq that France would use its veto in the U.N. Security Council against any American decision to attack Iraq." That is, once bribed, France would stay bribed.