"Little Iraq" for Jacque Chirac

The military reports that European women have been raped, and local thugs have beheaded foreigners with machetes. The troops rescue frightened whites as the mobs bay for Western blood. Chaos reigns, and back in the Western capital, the public begins to demand what their soldiers are doing in that far-off country.

The troops are French, the country is the former French colony of the &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/diplomatic/2002/10/09/37919.html ' target=_blank>Ivory Coast and this is what some observers are now calling French President Jacque Chirac’s "little Iraq", as CBS News reported.

Loading worried families onto the last two jumbo jets, &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/22/27818.html ' target=_blank>France concluded one of the largest evacuations in post-independence Africa on Monday -- an airlift that flew 5,000-plus Westerners from violence pitting France against its former prize West African colony.

More than 10,000 African nationals -- with no hope of such rescue -- have fled to neighboring countries, the U.N. refugee agency said.

Two French-organized flights late Monday, to Paris and to neighboring Ghana, are the last in six days of shuttles overseen by the French military, French spokesman Jacques Combarieu said, informs San Francisco Chronicle.