Part of my Xmas reading and imported from the US via Amazon, Timmerman's book confirms much of what I suspected, and learnt from a newphew serving on General Tommy Frank's Centcom team at Qatar when the US invaded Iraq (The nephew was part of a small Australian contingent).  That the Iraq episode had much to do with oil, which from France's position started with the Opec crisis of 1973, a crisis which La Maison France never really understood. And it was oil which the Russians and Saudis preferred not to be let onto the world market, though Timmerman does not develop that strand of geopolitics. (The biggest oil exporters are the Russians and Saudi's; neither appreciates free-market pricing).

Timmerman summarises the recent history of France and its relationship with the US, and for that matter the world, since the days of De Gaul.  It is often an unpleasant read, focussing as it does on the European tendency for Machiavellian mischief and bribery to grease the wheels of commerce. From a solid list of references, (listed in his notes) Timmerman makes an excellent case of the US and its policy for the Middle East following on from September 11, 2001, though then some would  say that I would say that, of course.

Did Saddam have WMD's - of course - supplied by Europeans and Russians - arms or oil, and of course the corruption of the payments to the various French political parties.But I am not going to dwell too much on most of his narrative though there some points which I was unaware of.

It is generally not known that the French State-owned loil company, ELF, was destined to do do a deal with Saddam, (subject to a 154 page contract) which effectively meant that the Iraq's told Eld where to drill and pump oil, for which they got 75% of the output, provided the French managed to have the UN sanctions lifted.

That never happened but when Chirac was relected in 2002, France managed to change UN procedures for authorising exports to Iraq. When previously an exporter had to wait up to eighteen months to contracts approved, in July 2002 things drastically improved - the UN now had two ten-day periods to review requests, with failure to meet the deadline meaning automatic approval for export. One unpublicised element that precipitated US policy later that year.

While much of the book clarifies media muddying of the factual waters, I was intrigued to read Tiimerman's conclusions for why France did what it did. France is a nation which only understands rule from above, while the US from  below. This coupled with the incestuous relationship between L'etat and business, explains why State matters from commercial, are indistinguishible for France.  So it was with the now decedent USSR, but still paramount for China today.

France is now reaping the fruits of egalitarianism it started on in 1789, though to be fair, France was always authoritarian, as most Europeans. Remember dear readers, that socialism, Marxism, social democracy, whatever you want to name it, started in Europe in the nineteenth century.

Chief architect of France's present meddling on the international stage is not Chirac, but France's foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin - and worshipper of Machiavelli and Napeleon Bonaparte. His solution to solving France's crisis?

La modelle Francais - government from the top down.

I finish with an amusing anecdote attributed to Jed Babbin, former deputy undersecretary of defence, 1989-1992, January 30, 2003 on MSNBC's "Hardball"

"Going to war with France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind".