Dirty deals are dirty deals. France, the nation which kept Ba'athist Iraq as a favored trading partner through thick and thin over a period of nearly thirty years, happens to be owed quite a bit of money from Saddam's defunct regime. They want it back, whether or not the Iraqi people carry no responsibility for their former oppressor's debts. The Wall Street Journal proposed a solution today:

During and after World War I, the U.S. extended a substantial amount of credit to its European allies. In 1922, the U.S. and 15 European countries agreed on a total indebtedness of about $11.5 billion - slightly more than $4 billion for France. Payments were made until 1931, mostly from German war reparations. Then the Depression led Hoover to declare a one-year moratorium, and by 1934 all but two of the countries defaulted. As of last December, according to the U.S. Treasury, principal and interest due on the French debt amounted to about $11.8 billion, or about twice what France may be owed by Iraq.

If France is going to make America's mission in Iraq more difficult by insisting on Saddam's debt, maybe we should insist on France finally repaying us.

An especially good idea, considering that the campaign to mine innocent Iraqis for Saddam's credit account is as repellent as the destinations for those monies. A lobbyist for repayment, recently misrepresented in a major American newspaper as an disinterested party, has actually represented the interest of forgiving the Soviets' debt. (Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan.)