what's French for "I told you so"?

“My Louisiana made, politically/environmentally incorrect tires:
”

“Bet those are loud on pavement.”

“My new Petzl Tikka Plus headlamp has a prominent “made in France” label.

Sorry dewd. I just can’t find it in my heart to punish France for being right when they tried to warn us not to rush headlong into this mess.”

“Maybe we should have bought into French intelligence instead of the British brand we went with.”

“Now there's a thought.


Hey Stickman, do you just ride it down the road like Thor from the "B.C." comics or is there a truck attached? <G>”

“(CBS) Even as fighting continues in Iraq, the United States is helping the Iraqis to prepare for the trial of Saddam Hussein.

No date has been set, but a few days ago, the Iraqi National Congress announced that a war crimes tribunal has been established to try Saddam.

But who would defend such a man? The answer is easy. Jacques Verges, an 80-year-old French lawyer, is known as "The Devil's Advocate," for his spirited defense of some of the worst monsters of our time.

... certainly will be Verges’ tactic in defending Saddam Hussein: to attempt to indict the United States for its years of support of Saddam's Iraq. And to achieve that, he says that he will call such witnesses as U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Verges loves the role of troublemaker. Though it's unlikely any of his witnesses would ever appear, he will raise the issue of American support for Saddam for a decade, for shipments of anthrax, and Rumsfeld's goodwill missions to Iraq in 1983 and ‘84.

“This mass destructive weapons were sold to Iraqi government by the United States. And Mr. Rumsfeld has been one of the man responsible for this sale, for this bargain, for this market,” says Verges, who calls Rumsfeld a “traveling salesman” for toxins and poisons.

He’s also said that the United States may try to kill Saddam before a trial. “I have this fear,” says Verges. “I am not sure. If I express my fear, it’s precisely to avoid this.”

Verges accuses the United States of being judge, jury and executioner: “Of course, Mr. Bush has said Saddam Hussein is guilty. He just has to be killed. But Mr. George Bush is not a separate judge of humanity. He has no any power in the affairs of justice.”

Did you see a problem in defending a man who has been accused by many of his own people of killing up to 300,000 people?

“ That is a number which surprise me. Well, I know that 500,000 children died in Iraq because of the US embargo,” says Verges.

And that kind of counter-argument is classic Verges: shifting blame, in this case, to the U.N. embargo of Iraq. The standard Verges tactic is to accuse the accusers. “It is the job of the lawyer to defend his client. No problem about that, that's his job. But the problem of Verges is what he does outside the court,” says Bernard-Henri Levy, the latest in a long line of French philosopher- celebrity journalists.”