For all intents and purposes, France was being paid by Saddam to veto any resolution that would oust him.

In other words, no matter what the evidence or reasons America and its allies put forward for taking Saddam out, it would have been impossible to create the kind of "universal*" coalition the Democrats keep harping about.

Not because America's reasons were insufficient, but because the fix was in.

More plainly: it wouldn't have mattered if there HAD been massive stockpiles of weapons and weapons factories in full operation. France would still have vetoed any action because Saddam was paying them to, and we still would have had to go in with only the allies the Left doesn't like.

I wonder how many other U.N. operations does this apply to?

*i.e. including France and Germany