Jacques Myard

Remember Jacques Myard, the French (pa-touie) MP who thought France should send troops to oppose Israel in the Hezbo dust-up? Well the frogman noticed (you and what army?) Myard's take on France's promise, well not promise, more of a willingness to briefly entertain the concept of, sending French troops to Lebanon as peace-keepers. Speaking of Myard:

Only he - and his pals in Chirac's government - is suddenly not too hot about it anymore:

The main political parties share [French Defense Minister's] reservations.

Jacques Myard, an MP in France's governing UMP party and a member of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, told the BBC the last UN resolution did not make it clear how France can act.

See, that's one of the reasons why you should always laugh at a bureaucrat and throw stones and horse manure at him, whenever you spot one. These folks are painstakingly deprived of imagination and initiative.

But the "no clear mandate" excuse is transparent. Myard has to say something and it can't be that (in frogman's words):

France doesn't want her soldiers to do some soldiering (Honest. There's only Myard and a couple like him, but they're deluded and they want to fight Israel, not Hizballah). Plus, do you really mean us to fight our Muslim lords and masters anyway?