Iraqi soldiers flea to Europe, page-24

I think the problem with letting the UN sanctions lapse with Saddam still in place was the control of Iraqi oil. France had a big contract in place for exploration and was desperate to get sanctions lifted. If I remember the oil industry news of the time, I think the French were carving up the spoils with Russia, China, Indonesia and Malaysia.

With a US cabinet consisting largely of ex-oil executives, losing control of a major world resource to other players would have been unthinkable. So they grabbed it by force. As you can understand, France was mightily upset by the 2nd Iraq war. Once again, dreams of being a major world player dashed.