Vincent raises some interesting points, I think, although I do disagree.
It seems like perhaps the US and France learned different lessons from
WWII. The US learned that ignoring the rest of the world, as we did
after WWI, is generally a bad policy because it allows the rise of
militaristic powers like Nazi Germany. Remember that although Germany
was a small state, it had a lot of power in the region and was able to
roll over its neighboring countries without much difficulty.

With Iraq, it could look like a very similar situation: a country with
an expansionistic history that is located in an important region of the
world. From this view, it seems very reasonable that if we want to
prevent a large war, we should preemptively disarm that nation. After
WWII, many people criticized the US for not pre-emptively disarming
Germany. If Iraq had indeed become agressive in the future, we would
certainly face similar criticisms.

Also, Vincent, it is worth remembering that the USA actually was NOT
attacked by Germany in WWII in any significant way that would cause our
involvement in the war. Nor were we in WWI, for that matter. We
participated in those wars to help our allies. What do the French think
of allies? What lessons do you think the French learned from WWII?

En réponse à William, je voudrais dire que les français se souviennent
des alliés de la Seconde Guerre, et biensur, qu'ils se souviennent de
l'aide apportée par les américains... Comment oublier une telle chose!?
Les enjeux n'étaient pas du tout les memes en 40 qu'en Irak! Il ne
convient pas de parler de leçons à retenir sur ce point...