Jinn of Current Events

Hans Blix: It therefore seems highly probable that the destruction of the bulk agent, including anthrax, stated by Iraq to be at Al Hakam in July-August 1991 did not occur.

Ceterum censeo, delenda est Mecca. 

Washington Post: Many in the Bush administration believe that France is comprehensively complicating NATO actions for no better reason than that the United States favors the actions. For example, because the buildup around Iraq requires increased shipping through the Strait of Gibraltar, the United States has favored increased NATO maritime patrols there. Although France in the end acquiesced, it did so only after NATO was forced into diplomatic and institutional contortions to counter French bloody-mindedness. There's more, unfortunately. 

The Washington Times: A French company has been selling spare parts to Iraq for its fighter jets and military helicopters during the past several months, according to U.S. intelligence officials. The unidentified company sold the parts to a trading company in the United Arab Emirates, which then shipped the parts through a third country into Iraq by truck. The spare parts included goods for Iraq's French-made Mirage F-1 jets and Gazelle attack helicopters. 

When lack of intervention leads to consequences horrible beyond imagination: In the 1925 Treaty of Locarno, Germany had recognized both the inviolability of its borders with France and Belgium and the demilitarization of the Rhineland. On March 7, 1936, however, Hitler repudiated this agreement and ordered the German armed forces (Wehrmacht) into the demilitarized Rhineland. Hitler's action brought condemnation from Britain and France, but neither nation intervened. One year earlier (1935-Mar-16) Germany had already reintroduced military conscription, in open violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Two years after the Rhineland remilitarization (1938-Mar-12) German troops entered Austria and that country was annexed (the "Anschluss"). One year later (1939-Mar-15) Hitler violated the infamous Munich agreement and eradicated the Czechoslovak state — the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia were proclaimed a German protectorate and occupied by German forces. [Holocaust Learning Center]

Fast forward. As Allied Forces approached the Rhine River, Hitler had ordered (starting on 1944-Dec-16) all bridges blown up to prevent a crossing into Nazi Germany. But on 1945-Mar-07, an advance element of the 9th U.S. Armored Division chanced upon the last intact Rhine Bridge, which they promptly captured; it was the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen. While Allied troops were thus crossing the Rhine, the Nazis made multiple, desperate attempts to destroy the bridge, but they failed. In the span of ten days, 40,000 Allied soldiers crossed the bridge, before it collapsed due to overloading. [see e.g. interview with Ken Hechler, WWII historian]

Imagine what could have been avoided, how many innocent lives could have been saved, if there had been a military intervention against Nazi Germany in March 1936, exactly nine years before the bridge at Remagen had to be captured by US forces.