Hey, just to get in on the serious war history: every country in Europe lost many wars to Italians. Italians, you may remember, conquered the world from Asia Minor to England. Italian dominance of the world for a prolonged period of time is the reason why Christianity could spread from Palestine to Ireland in 400 years. Indeed, one of the longest-lasting empires the world has ever known was headquartered in Italy and Turkey, which goes to show how little our modern impressions of a country's importance may mean historically.

After Italy, what European country's army occupied the largest swath of European territory? Why, the French, under Napoleon. But only briefly, of course...occupying Europe from Spain to Russia was too great a strain.

Don't fuck with the French. Their government is beholden to the will of their people; they are a democracy. If French people don't want to go fight Saddam Hussein, then the French government is entirely right to oppose it. I always find it weird when Americans get mad at other countries for not doing what our administration wants. Why should they? They have their own electorate...