That's Jack describing Iraq in the big French scheme of things.

Jack was holding forth on froth at Oxford University during a two-day London junket. Jack went on to sermonize on the "principle" of intervention, apparently completely clueless of France's post-colonial "Frenchman's burden" interventions in Africa (44):

"The principle of the right to intervention should be strictly laid down by international law which is expressed today through the United Nations."

"It's the international community and the UN which, alone, has the power to say if intervention is necessary," he said.

Jack's not too fussy about an after-the-fact UN permission for France mucking around Africa. And less about exceeding said permission. And if UN efforts don't achieve French ends, then France will just "impose peace" on any untypically fractious Africans, Africans being joyeux par nature. (Hat tip: ¡No Pasarán!) We believe this is the French roundabout for waging war.

France is a nation that looks to her membership in the UN for some heft in the international importance and prestige departments. The trade-off is France provides, absolutely free of charge, the UN with an agenda. Jack realizes that the UN is headed for, if not reform, at least some sort of re-organization. So as not to be on the wrong side of the inevitable, Jack appears to have forsaken France's resistance to UN enlargement:

The French president said the Security Council "is no longer really representative of the world today", and called for an increase also in the number of non-permanent members. ...Chirac suggested that Germany, Japan, India, Brazil and a "large African country", like Nigeria or South Africa, should become permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Jack's comments complement the latest voice of one-world-government:

The European Union should have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, the new Commissioner for External Affairs has said.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who was confirmed in the post on Thursday, believes that the EU must take a more communal approach in international institutions such as the UN.

"The more we speak with one voice, the better for us and the better for Europe. We are not important if we don't speak with one voice," she said. ... She believes that Britain and France would not necessarily have to relinquish their seats if an EU position was created.

"Froth in reality" can just as well describe Jack's recent and various musings abroad. In an interview earlier this week, Jack made this interesting claim:

In the Newsnight interview, Mr Chirac described anti-French feeling in the US as confined to "an agitated minority" [It's just us Pave folk.] and noted that Americans continued to visit France in large numbers .

"I notice that they are still enthusiastic about our cheeses, our chips, our wine," he said.

Well, the Newsnight folk may lap up Jack's froth, but readers of this blog and the French government know different.

Jack's two-day froth-over in Britain elicited the usual yawns in the dull French papers about things English:

The French newspapers gave minimal attention to the visit, burying it on inside pages and offering no editorial comment.

Le Parisien, a popular daily, headlined the "genuine-fake cordiality of Chirac" and highlighted what it considered a major gaffe by the French president: his arrival 20 minutes late at an evening function hosted by Queen Elizabeth II because of London traffic.

Not so the advertent British press, who took a keen interest in Jack's summit blather and manner:

Chirac had at times adopted "a manner calculated to embarrass his host", British Prime Minister Tony Blair, The Times newspaper said in an editorial comment. ... Chirac's talk of multipolarism talk was fine, The Times said, but "it would be useful if he had clarified whether this meant anything more than giving France a bigger megaphone". ... Britain "should politely ignore the bad manners of France's president and wish M. Sarkozy godspeed", The Times said.

The tabloid Sun newspaper...called France's reverent treatment of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who died last week in a Paris hospital, "nauseating".

"So why should we roll out the red carpet for Chirac?" the paper asked. "Chirac is a two-faced, double-dealing, arrogant, selfish crook. At least he's going home today."

[All emphases added.]