France shows her weakness once again

[ilikeverin]

As long as you are seen as occupators there nothing will change.

Precisely; we will always be seen as occupiers (due to Muslim extremists warping the minds of Middle Easterners), so American troops serving in UN forces in the Middle East would be dangerous to the troops, to the UN at large, and to the peace process in general.

That being said, we might want to provide assistance to other regions, but still.  US troops in Lebanon would be dangerous for all involved.

[ilikeverin]

France will increase its deployment to 2.000 soldiers ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/24/AR2006082401106.html

It's about time.  Still, I think Italy should take over the operation since they are showing the initiative.  France is dragging their feet.

Well, I'm afflicted ... but before this a country whose initial ones are U, S and A provided weapons to Israel and encouraged the continuation of their offensive against Lebanon, so you might understand that France is asking itself questions about the legitimacy of USA's position...
Moreover, many French and European people find quite ... shocking, or at least disturbing, that a part of USA's politicians and public opinion is complaining about slowness (2 unhappy weeks!).
After all, aren't France and EU just trying to repair the damages caused by an unclear war nearly officially supported by the USA ? It's a real pleasure,  to hear Bush saying he's deceived that France hasn't send enough boys to clean up USA's mess ...

Are you kidding?  The conflict in the Middle East is the United States's fault?  It is certainly not the United States's fault, nor Israel's fault, nor Lebanon's fault, nor Hezbollah's fault, nor Iran's fault, nor anyone else's fault.  It is the offspring of deep religious tension caused by centuries of misunderstanding, scores of power-hungry religious officials, legions of misguided followers, and several unfortunate mistakes.  To try to pin the conflict on one country, let alone one not even in the region, is severely underestimating the true complexity of the Middle Eastern situation.