Franco-American Cooperation on IDs
There are still hurt feelings and ruffled feathers both in Washington and Paris over the recent unpleasantness. However, as developed nations with industrial needs and economies that require a certain mobility of worker at all levels, the US and France both have identical needs when it comes to internal security. Both sides are acting like grown ups in the matter of passport forgery -- talks are under way and a solution is in sight.
As French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy put it, "French and American cooperation never stopped because it concerns the security of our citizens." This despite the Iraq problem which he described as "real." In other words, the common interests of the parties will ensure that they don't get too far in their hostile rhetoric.
The actual issue on passport fraud is over the best way to use biometric techniques to make sure that the bearer of the passport is, indeed, who he claims to be. There is wide spread concurrence that something must be used, but whether that is iris scanning or fingerprints remaines an open question.
That is how much these two nations agree on this issue -- not whether passport forgery is a problem, not whether to improve security, not whether to use biometrics, simply whether the eye or the finger is a better (safer, easier, more consistent, etc.) measure. There will be those who still order "Liberty Fries" or "Idiot Cheese" but what unites the two are common interests -- one must help the other or hurt itself.