France: Iraqi elections "success of int'l community"

According to a Xinhuanet story,

The high participation rate of the Iraqis in their elections is "a piece of good news" and a "success for the international community", French government's spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said at the French private Europe 1 radio on Sunday.

No doubt M. Cope is referring to the international community's unanimous decision to depose Saddam Hussein, its unanimous decision to send troops to achieve that aim, its expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars to fund the operation and rebuild the nation, its crucial participation in defending the polling places during the election, and its courage in showing up to vote under death threats.

Oh, wait. I guess that was actually the U.S.-led Coalition and the Iraqi people who did all that. The Coalition whose actions France has bitterly opposed nearly every step of the way, and whose legitimacy France has taken great pains to undermine. It was actually the Iraqi people who made it possible, whom France has barely lifted a finger to help since the fall of Saddam.

And the citizens of the non-Coalition "international community?" The ones who massed in the millions all over the world to oppose the liberation of Iraq? The ones who claimed (and often still claim) that it's all about America raping the region's ooooiiiiiiillllll?

Yeah, it was clearly their success.

Right.