Italian diplomats have have come forward with some pretty serious allegations:

Italian diplomats say that France was behind forged documents which at first appeared to prove that Iraq was seeking "yellow-cake" uranium in Niger - evidence used by Britain and America to promote the case for last year's Gulf war.

They say that France's intelligence services used an Italian-born middle-man to circulate a mixture of genuine and bogus documents to "trap" the two leading proponents of war with Saddam into making unsupportable claims.
...
"Their aim was to make the allies look ridiculous in order to undermine their case for war."

While these allegations are pretty serious, I have to say that I wouldn't at all be surprised if they were true. I doubt, however, that the Frenchies' aim was to protect their "trading status" with Iraq, as the article reports. Rather, I think it's much more likely that the goal was to gain international respect and re-emerge as a world power.

To better understand their deep desire for international respect and admiration, it is important to understand something about France: France believes, very, very, very strongly that a world with only one superpower is a very, very, very dangerous world. They will go to almost any end to avoid living in a one superpower world, regardless of who that one superpower is. This strong belief has been the driving force behind much of France's foreign policy over the last 10 years or so. It's been the driving force in their drive to strengthen the UN, and it's been the main driving force behind the decision to form the EU European superstate.

Whether they're right or wrong about the dangers of the single superpower world, the Frenchies are almost certainly wrong in the ends that they will go to ensure that one nation doesn't achieve "superpower" status while others flounder. They are wrong in that they aren't above tearing the other side down to their level rather than building themselves up to meet the opposition.

France's plan may have gone something like this:

1. Get the US and UK to rely on fake documents.
   
2. Be very, very loud about how wrong the US and the UK are.
   
3. Suddenly produce evidence that shows that you were right all along.
   
4. Earn international respect and emerge as a world leader.
   

The plan has a certain sort of "finesse" that makes it a very French plan, don't you think? It's an attempt to outsmart an opponent, not to beat them with force. It's an attempt to gain respect by being craftier and brainier than the other side. It's an attempt to paint themselves as being classy, quick and nimble, while calling the other side uncivilized brutes. France is no stranger to this type of plan, either - remember the Maginot Line, which they thought would make their "finessed" smaller army "superior" to the brutish German army? How long did that hold up, about a day?

Every day, I see at least one bumper sticker that reads "Bush Lied, People Died." In fact, this was the very theme of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. So, if these Looney Lefties are logical at all, and if this report pans out to be true, then these same folks will start calling for a "regime change" in France, right?

Don't count on it.