In the news today, CNN reports that France has been the most recent terrorist target with Ricin being found in the a subway.

I can't help but wonder why terrorists would target France considering their political position regarding Iraq. The only possible angle that makes sense would be that terrorists would prefer that all countries were angrily involved in the war. However, I'm more likely to believe that it's possible someone is trying to scare France into believing they have reasons for concern and should change their policies.

Far fetched? Maybe.

Anyone else consider France a strange target for terrorists at this time?

They've attacked a French cruise ship before. And I agree with you.

Radical fundamental Islamic terrorists hate all those who are not.....radical fundamental muslims. Anyone, including the French, who believes they can buy off that hatred somehow is sadly mistaken.

France may have actually increased its chances of becoming a target by showing how weak it is. Until the world understands that there is evil out there that understands nothing but strength and force, that evil will flourish.

Thankfully, the US and UK have leadership that realizes this and has the will to do what needs to be done. At times I have to laugh at how naive some people, Americans in particular, can be.

We just emerged from an eight year stretch where evil knew we didn't have the resolve to respond. As a result, that evil preyed on us in ever more frequent and violent ways. We are not sending a very clear message that we will no longer sit back and allow ourselves to fall victim.

The only 'conspiracy' I see is the lily-livered one that we have now cast aside. Thank God for that.

Let us not forget that Iraq is not allied with the Islamic fundamentalist movement. There connection to al-Qaida or other fundamentalist groups is tenuous at best. Iraq fought a long war against the leading fundamentalist country, Iran and received hefty financial aid from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait while doing so.

Many of these terrorists are mad at the secular western world and the values portrayed by it. France is a legitimate target in this and Europe has been dealing with these terrorists acts for decades.

Maybe France wasn't the target.

When they found ricin in a London flat in January, they also found forged French passports. It may just be that terrorists who possess the ricin are residing in France.

I don't think there's enough data right now to make any judgements on this.

Guess that takes care of the alleged al Qaeda-Iraq connection then, huh?

In on respect it does. UBL hates SH. He has said as much. However, that wouldn't preclude these two from joining forces to some degree against an enemy they both hate even more.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend", huh?

Yeah, I guess that could happen. It sure applied in the past when Donald Rumsfeld was making champagne toasts with Saddam Hussein or Dick Cheney and Halliburton were rebuilding Iraq's oil industry after Desert Storm or the Reagan Administration was playing footsie with Saddam during the Iraq/Iran war or the CIA was training bin Laden how to use Stinger missles to shoot down Russian helicopters in Afghanistan.

Hmmm...anybody see a pattern here?

The pattern is there and always will be. Like it or not, that is reality in geopolitics. It is also the main reason the UN will never achieve its lofty but unreal goals.

I fully understand MM that in order for the U.S. to accomplish its goals it has to deal with some unsavory characters.

However, there is the law of unintended consequences always poised to bite us in the butt. Or as the CIA calls it, "blowback."

Today's clients may become tomorrow's terrorists.