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It's time for France to go. Their "participation" in NATO has always been one of self-interest, instead of mutual-interest, and their selfish actions are now threatening the entire alliance.

France left the military wing of the alliance long ago, and allowing it to have a veto over military actions after that was foolish. That needs to be corrected immediately. Any nation that fails to participate militarily in NATO should not have a veto over military actions.

Ever since World War II France has had a chip on its shoulder. While most nations accept the passing of their world-power status, France refused to admit that it had been bumped from the center of world affairs. Their resentment towards the United States, which had succeeded the European powers as the clear leader of the Western world after WWII has always been apparent. The United States has had to "buy" the French off on a number of occasions, starting with the formation of NATO and most recently the conflict with Iraq. With the passing of the Soviet Union, the United States no longer needs France, and the blackmail payments have got to stop.

France's history on the international scene isn't very pretty. After World War II it waged wars to keep its empire intact. The U.S. was forced into a situation of aiding the French in Indochina in return for French participation in NATO. That was the first step on the long road to U.S. involvement in Vietnam. France then battled nationalist insurgents in African colonies, including a long, bloody campaign in Algeria. In addition to battling to keep its empire, France (along with Britain) tried to seize the Suez Canal in 1956. Their ill-planned venture backfired as world support for Egypt eventually forced their withdrawal and made Egyptian dictator Abdul Nasser a hero in Egypt and the Arab world. The war, along with the Arab-Israeli war that was being fought at the time gave the Soviet Union the cover it needed to crush the Hungarian revolt.

Of particular interest to the U.S. was French refusal to allow overflights when the U.S. retaliated against Libya for its terrorist activities. That refusal required U.S. pilots to fly completely around Europe and then to Libya along the Mediterranean coast of Africa, adding thousands of miles to the flight. This is just one occasion on which France has appeased terrorists in the hopes of not becoming a target. Despite evidence that this policy has failed (France has been the scene of numerous terrorist attacks) they continue to follow it, event to the detriment of relations with its real friends. With a "friend" like that, the U.S. needs no other enemy!

The biggest problem in the current crisis is that France (along with Germany and Russia) has been rearming Iraq and selling it the technology it needs to make weapons of mass destruction. Any military victory over Iraq would lead to the disclosure of those facts. France (along with Germany and Russia) clearly wants to prevent that from happening.

The United States, along with Britain, should rally the rest of NATO and leave the Trio of Timidity (France, Germany and Russia) behind in the UN Security Council as well. Only nine of sixteen votes are needed to approve an action. Any threat of a veto should be met with the threat of the termination of United States aid for that country. We need to stop aiding our enemies, and the war on terrorism means we need to stop aiding anyone who isn't our friend as well.

While we are cleaning France out of NATO we should also clean them out of the UN permanent Security Council. Their seat should be awarded to India instead. As the world's largest democracy and nuclear power, it deserves the seat far more than France does. The European Union can always be represented through Britain's permanent seat.

Any time we allow a nation that has helped formed instability veto actions to resolve that instability we weaken world peace efforts. Only a Soviet boycott of the United Nations allowed Korea to be saved in 1949. As long as France (and Germany and Russia) are allowed to veto solutions to problems they helped cause, the UN will remain an impotent entity.

The United States can not let its strategic interests be subsumed by the United Nations as long as that entity remains in such a state. Like the League of Nations before it, it will never be able to prevent a nation from causing problems for the rest of the world as long as that nation, and/or it's allies, are allowed to forestall action by the rest of the world. This will greatly increase the chances of a major war breaking out. It is worse than no United Nations at all.

It's time for France to go. Good riddance!

It's time for France to go.

The U.S. was forced into a situation of aiding the French in Indochina in return for French participation in NATO. That was the first step on the long road to U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

With a "friend" like that, the U.S. needs no other enemy!

As long as France (and Germany and Russia) are allowed to veto solutions to problems they helped cause, the UN will remain an impotent entity.