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One additional point I'd like to add about the influence of France and Germany's position within the EU as it relates to the Iraq war.
The big stumbling block to French and German "control" (in quotes because it wouldn't really be control but more very high level of influence) of the EU is Great Britain. Great Britain's close alliance with the US on the Iraq issue made it an excellent political opportunity for France and Germany to paint GB as a US lapdog. France and Germany's opposition enabled other countries (like Canada) to oppose the US led invasion of Iraq. There are plenty of reasons why other allies opposed the move including fear of becoming terrorist targets, being perceived as being led along by the nose by the US, avoidance of alienating large segments of voters during campaigns/elections, fear of a massive war in the desert with lots of bodies heading to home ports (don't forget the dire predictions about what would happen should we need to invade Iraq) etc.
I think a great number of decisions on whether to join the coalition or not were based not on right and wrong or lack of enough evidence but more about political safety.
On a side note, I think it will be extremely interesting in the years to come to see what alliances are forged within the EU. France and Germany are taking the wrong tack, IMO, to exert influence. They are alienating Britons, Italians, and Spaniards while attempting to bully the smaller countries within the Union (and those with an eye towards joining). Of course, more in depth discussion of this would warrant a new thread and I've pretty much laid out my entire opinion in the last couple of sentences.
Oh well, back to work.
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Strive to be more curious than ignorant.
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