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Assimilation vs Freedom vs Oppression
The oil for food thing was about corruption and IMHO quite irrelevant.
It was quite relevant because the majority of the UN's naysayers were all implicated guilty with involvement.
The French know the Arabs much better than we do because they have a long history of being in north Africa and attempting without much success to rule them ...
Therein lies the rub ... the European colonies failed because Europeans tried to rule them. YES, they had more direct experience with the culture. But I do not believe that was associated with their disagreement on the matter. Moreover, the experience was different because the Americans tried something else - to let them rule themselves.
Thus, history has shown us that they cannot be ruled from afar (thank you France & England). History has shown us they cannot rule themselves (thank you America). History has shown us they can only be ruled by oppression (thank you Taliban, thank you Saddam, thank you ....)
So was the right answer that they should have been put under martial law and forced into a system? Perhaps. It might have worked. But it would have failed miserably on the PR side of the house. On the flip, we've already failed miserably on the PR side of the house so that point is already moot.
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RE: the implications
The French know the Arabs much better than we do because they have a long history of being in north Africa and attempting without much success to rule them in places like Algeria, Morocco, and Lebanon. So their judgement of Iraq was bound to be better than ours. The oil for food thing was about corruption and IMHO quite irrelevant.
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