Me: Who mentioned France and Germany? Why you yet again.

I mentioned France and Germany, because when "international" (or it's inverse, "unilateral") is brought up by the liberals or the media when criticizing Bush, this is obviously what is meant. "International" does not seem to include Britain, Australia, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Japan, or South Korea.

In short, "international" has been redefined as "allied with the RIGHT nations."

If you have a more precise definition of the term, please lay it on me.

We spent almost a year before the war in Iraq trying to convince nations like France to help us out, to help us in Iraq, or to support us in any way whatsoever.

France liked Saddam just where he was, thank you. So did the U.N. The money was good.

When we tried to "bribe" Turkey to help--"bribe" being your suggestion--Bush was derided endlessly for resorting to this. In fact, I could find a lot of posts here from people sneering at any quid-pro-quo we gave for assistance.