[The Scourge of Yazid]

Before you get angry over Chirac's loathsome actions, you have to ask yourself one simple question: "What country's athletes-aside from those of Nazi Germany itself-delivered the Sig Hiel during the "Parade of Nations" ceremony at the 1936 Berlin Olympics?

Another interesting thought to ponder would be the lack of ambivalence expressed toward the fate of who emerged from Operation Iraqi Freedom the ultimate victor.

The French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, made it quite clear which horse France was backing during the battle between Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party and the United States military.

[risk]

I see the war on terror as only having human souls for borders and battle fronts. Traditional boundaries are less and less important. France, sure it's politically a danger to us now. But there are good French people -- plenty of good French people. I'm interesting in bringing the undecided ones to our side and keeping the committed ones with us. As I've said before, I am more worried about the Vishy Americans than the undecided French.

[Atlantic Friend]

As you may know, the Olympic salute is just like the Nazi one. The Nazis borrowed it from the Fascists, who borrowed it from Greece. I feel safe to say that the ONLY delegation that did the NAZI salute in 1936 was the German one - and who knows if all the German athletes were Nazis !

There were heated debates among the other delegations whether to salute the official tribune (where Hitler was) in the Olympic way. And while it is true that after these debates the French delegation saluted in this way, I want to make clear that they WEREN'T doing a Sieg Heil, and that other delegations also chose to salute in the Olympic way. France at that time was ruled by a left-wing government who really had nothing to do with Nazi Germany, and whose leaders like Leon Blum, our first Jewish prime Minister, was sent into a concentration camp by the Germans themselves.

As for de Villepin, you've got a point, he's a stupid and pompous man I'd gladly see rolled in tar and feathers - or in honey and fire ants.