Originally posted by: Tiger
None of the above.
The French boycott isn't government sanctioned. It's simply the American consumer expressing their displeasure with the French government through their wallets. It's democracy in action.
While Russia, China, and Germany also oppose America's position, they have not nearly been as proactive as France. The French went out of their way to kill the last UN resolution. Simply using their own veto would have been enough to kill it. They didn't need to bribe the African members of the SC but did it anyway. This proves that the french don't see this as an honest disagreement over Iraq and Saddam. This is about Chiraq trying to position France as the defacto European counterweight to the US. Why is it that most French leaders end up getting this Napoleanic syndrome? This from a country who's bacon we've saved 3 times in the last 100 years.
If French business is punished to the point of pain maybe when they have elections there will be more moderate leadership.
Syndrome = emotionally immature, self-centred, and insecure. One of our province, is 90% french-canadians. They sure take after the syndrome which cost dearly Canada's economy, specifically, our currency plummeted (from 0.78 to .60ish) to the abyss and haven't recovered since
edit: French politics just reeks fowl of stupidity.