france agreed to participate in military action until the end of january, when it was clear that its opinion was totally disregarded by the bush administration. considering the past decade (only) one can hardly see how can france can be seen as a "peace force". chances are its status of medium power, plus its central (?) role as a eu founder only keeps it from acting as a rogue state. but seriously, chirac took this chance to improve his image against the opinion of his majority's leaders. a la blair, for similar purposes.
jch