France’s Villepin calls for 2008 Iraq troop exit
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Friday urged the United States and other foreign nations to withdraw from Iraq in 2008 and said the war had “shattered” America’s image abroad. The Iraqi conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and some 3,200 U.S. troops in the past four years, is sapping the power of the United States to peacefully influence other players in the troubled Middle East, he said. “The war with Iraq marked a turning point. It shattered America’s image,” said Villepin, who opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Full Story