the illegal trade you speak of was beng conducted by their government
this boycotting only hurts people over there, which is what levvies pressure to the president
i hope it simmers down and chiraq realises the enormity of the situation. wouldn;t you hate it if you were a vinyard owner who couldnt afford to feed his kids just because his country veto's a war he didnt give a toss about or worse still SUPPORTED?
worse still, what if france actually DID object to this on moral grounds. ok, the probably didnt but what if they refused to do the US's bidding because their people were aganst it....something they felt was a threat to world stabilty and was purely in america's self interest and now they get punished for it??
what if the boycott goes the other way? america is haemorraging $$$ in the middle east due to boycotts of mcdonalds, KFC, cola etc....you really want a heavily industrialised nation like France exploiting those weaknesses? what about your crippled airline industry? or the retailers that DEPEND on french imports in the US?
what message does this send to other allies, particularly the poorer ones? support us or be damned economically? France has lost a good ally for a good few years now....shouldn;t that be enough punishment?