Jinn of Current Events

Victor Davis Hanson is angry and illustrates how History always repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, and the second as farce. 

The U.S. ambassador in Paris, Howard Leach, in an editorial published in Le Monde, warns that further French opposition to the United States on Iraq will have serious consequences: In the Iraqi crisis, we have reached an important moment when a decision has to be taken. And France's position could have repercussions for a longtime to come. [via FOXNews] 

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, after meeting with President George W. Bush at the White House on Thursday urged Europe to confront Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. ... He said the Holocaust could have been avoided if the world had intervened in 1939, a time in history he compared to the current crisis with Iraq. The only major European countries who oppose confrontation with the Butcher of Baghdad are Germany and France. Of course, the one was responsible for the Holocaust, the other surrendered then collaborated. 

Jacob Levy (The New Republic Online): Prewar planning and postwar planning are beginning to come together in a most unfortunate way, with the greatest casualty being hopes for a federalist system in postwar Iraq. 

Charles Krauthammer (Washington Post): [France] was given its permanent seat on the Security Council to preserve the fiction that heroic France was part of the great anti-Nazi alliance rather than a country that surrendered and collaborated. A half-century later, that charade has proved costly. In order to appease the French, we negotiated Security Council Resolution 1441, which France has thoroughly trashed and yet which has delayed American action for months.