It's not so odd. Lebanon is a French invention. No such country or political region ever existed before the French mandate after the European assault on the Ottoman Empire. The region of Lebanon was simply a cultural and political part of the land now called Syria, going back thousands of years. I remember reading somewhere (what a useful reference to a source, even Ms. J. Miller would be appalled!) Chirac was a big, big friend of Rafik Hariri. You can only marvel how that man (Chirac) gets around. And Lebanon somehow seems to evoke a strange chord of cultural (read Christian) solidarity in some French circles, tending towards the right, right over to the far right. Why should such an alliance be 'strange'? Despite outward appearances, the U.S. and France have a deep understanding of and respect for each other. The show of friction between them is basically a sideshow run for the benefit of the masses. Of course, the disagreement about Iraq was substantial and was also in reaction to the U.K.

Off topic: I wish people on the EuroTrib would stop referring to the area of Europe which is not the U.K. or Ireland as the Continent. The word is so specific to the English point of view (yes English in the sense of the rule Britannia crowd). I'd rather call it 'mainland Europe'. Then we can call the U.K. 'insular Europe' instead of referring to the country by name. Somehow Ireland doesn't seem to fit in one way or the other.