>Or are you saying that we're now so indebted to France that we are compelled to follow them -- HUNDREDS of years afterwards? I guess our contributions in the two World Wars (far more relevant to modern-day relations) don't count for a thing.

If war dead and contributions to the war are really considered to be relevant in 2003, and we should base which countries we should be loyal to on the basis of what they did over fifty years ago, then I have to inform you that we should all be following the Russians about now, as they entered the war on June 22 1941 (as opposed to December 8) and lost something between 15 and 25 million men (as opposed to 234,874). We should also not be welcoming Japan to the coalition of the willing (or bribed, or scared), considering their actions, nor should we be having too much to do with Spain, who remained neutral.

Do you see what I'm getting at?

Zarniwoop