FRANCE CONTINUES THE PROCESS OF SELF-MARGINALIZATION and of undermining the U.N.:

The French president said at a European Union summit he would “not accept” a resolution that “would legitimize the military intervention [and] would give the belligerents the powers to administer Iraq.”

“That would justify the war after the event,” Chirac told reporters.

We should keep the United Nations, and its cadre of neocolonialist “internationals” as far away from Iraq as possible, and we should do our best to underscore the United Nations’ fecklessness and futility at every turn.

Er, to the extent that Chirac doesn’t do it for us, that is.

UPDATE: He’s hard at work, our Jacques:

BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) – European Union (news – web sites) divisions over Iraq (news – web sites) widened Friday when three anti-war states agreed to hold a summit on defense integration without Britain, while London stood by charges that France had wrecked diplomacy in the crisis.

As EU leaders wrapped up a second day of tense talks, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt announced plans for France, Germany and Belgium to meet next month to discuss integrating their armed forces more closely.

A military union of France, Germany, and the dreaded Belgians! That’ll show ’em! Well, it’s showing us something, all right. This way they can be ineffectual in unison, instead of individually. . . .

UPDATE: Brian Erst emails: “Ineffective in unison. Now we know the French meaning of ‘multilateral.'”