Stardate 20031216.1208

(On Screen): In the aftermath of Saddam's capture, suddenly France and Germany are willing to cooperate on reducing Iraq's debt. One has to wonder whether James Baker might not be offering this deal: the US won't reveal what Saddam says about his friends in those nations and how they helped him against the US, if those friends stop being obstructionist pricks regarding US efforts in Iraq.

Of course, no details have been revealed, so this may just be lip service. Does Schröder's "substantial debt forgiveness" mean 2% or 70%? It will be interesting to see whether there's a radical change in Weasel policy in future. If there is, it will be difficult to ignore the possibility that there's some blackmail going on. (It certainly couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of Weasels...)

Update: Catherine writes:

Guess it's that old "when you've got'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow" treatment!

Since when have they got balls?

Update 20031217: Andrew Boucher writes:

Could be Baker has offered deal you suggest.  In any case one other powerful incentive; with the capture of Saddam, Bush looks more electable than he did just a week ago. The French and Germans may have decided that they will be dealing with him five more years now, so better to be nice to him.

Andrew's point is well taken. I have read things from Europe which said that a lot of the leaders there had decided to go limp, and to try to delay until after the election next year, mostly hoping that the Democrats might pull out a win. But that's been looking like an increasingly forlorn hope, and with the capture of Saddam Andrew is right that it now looks like there's almost no chance of the Democrats winning.