Amir Taheri, Arab News Staff

PARIS, 26 December 2003 — Has France shot itself in the foot by trying to prevent the toppling of Saddam Hussein?

The question is keeping French foreign policy circles buzzing as the year draws to the close.

Even a month ago, few would have dared pose the question.

In denial mode, the French elite did not wish to consider the possibility that President Jacques Chirac may have made a mistake by leading the bloc that opposed the liberation of Iraq last March. Now, however, the search is on for someone to blame for what the daily newspaper Liberation describes as “the disarray of French foreign policy.”

There are several reasons for this.

The French have seen Saddam Hussein’s capture on television and found him not worthy of the efforts that their government deployed to prolong his rule. They have also seen the Iranian mullas agreeing to curtail their nuclear program under the threat of US military action. And just this week they saw Muammar Qaddafi, possibly the most egocentric windbag among despots, crawl into a humiliating surrender to the “Anglo-Saxons”.

The fact that France was not even informed of the Qaddafi deal is seen in Paris as particularly painful.

I'm sure this is minority opinion but still an interesting Arab viewpoint.