A second thought, after linking to Freidman on France... I'm getting sick of the jokes about the weakness/sissiness/unmanliness of the French. I'm an American, in case you haven't yet picked that fact up from context, and as far as I understand it, French soldiers saved American bacon in our Revolutionary War. Napolean's boys weren't weaklings, and no, they weren't all Spaniards, either.
I suppose that the joke comes from the assumption that Frenchmen are gay, and are therefore effeminate; this is obviously contradictory to the other stereotype, that all the French think about is sex, coffee and cigarettes. Anyway, I just wanted to add to my earlier comment that I don't want the French off the Security Council permanent seat because they are pathetic beret-wearing communards, but because there really should only be five permanent seats, and India should have one. I'd be willing to listen to an argument that Britain should lose her seat before France loses hers (China, Russia and the U.S. certainly belong), but my inclination would be to keep the Brits, lose the French and add India. Or how about Brazil instead of Britain?
Thank you,
-Vardibidian.