Wealth & Money Quote by Bob Schaffer

A line like this isn’t policy so much as a jab dressed up as common sense. Schaffer’s “I would love to see” frames the remark as casual, almost playful, but the wish is pointed: it’s a dare aimed at France, casting them as loud critics who should put skin in the game. The verb “restore” does heavy lifting, too. It implies Iraq is broken, that rebuilding is the obvious next chapter, and that the real question is who pays - not whether the original intervention was wise, legal, or avoidable.

The subtext is grievance politics. In the early-2000s atmosphere around the U.S. invasion of Iraq, “the French” became a convenient shorthand for disloyal allies: obstructive at the UN, smug in European caution, happy to lecture Americans from a safe distance. Schaffer’s line taps that mood by converting a complex geopolitical rift into a moral ledger. If you didn’t support the war, you should finance the cleanup. It’s a rhetorical inversion that punishes dissent and absolves the speaker’s side of accountability by spreading the bill outward.

It also functions domestically. The target isn’t Paris; it’s the American audience’s appetite for vindication. By turning reconstruction into a taunt, Schaffer signals toughness, rallies resentment, and reduces coalition-building to a transactional shakedown. The wit is barbed, but the message is blunt: loyalty is measured in payments, not arguments.