C'est la Vie; the Future of U.S.-French Relations

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Byline: Tod Lindberg, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Some of my fellow American panelists at a conference here, sponsored by the French Center on the United States, were expecting to get an earful from French panelists and members of the audience on the subject of the prime-contractor restrictions against France, Germany and Russia for Iraq reconstruction. I was, too. Wrong. The subject was barely touched upon.

Why was that? Well, I think the simplest explanation is that on this subject, the French by and large think we are right. They had no great expectations about being invited to reap the profits of reconstruction when they opposed the war in the first place.

True, President Bush could have magnanimously invited the three most important naysayers to join more fully in the …