The collapse, subject to the appeal on behalf of the accuser, of the sex crimes case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn inspires several thoughts:
* did the US justice system, after an appalling start in the affair (perp walk, harsh remand decision, draconian bail conditions all giving the impression that guilty verdicts had already been delivered), redeem itself by reaching the appropriate conclusion?
* or would a poor defendant have stood no chance against such odds?
* can the French media ever again point accusing fingers at the conduct of "Anglo-Saxon" journalists, having routinely named the accuser (ie long before she chose to put her identity in the public domain) in defiance of practice observed by all decent media outlets everywhere?
* based solely on the headlines they ran, insulting DSK and the alleged victim in turn, it can be reasonably said that the New York tabloids can hardly look back on their conduct with pride
* can DSK be taken seriously in any senior public role after his admission to what his lawyers call "consensual" sexual relations with a stranger in his hotel room, a dalliance of which he said "not to be proud"?
* will the French press be more vigilant about the future behaviour, even in private if that behaviour has a damaging impact on others, of important, powerful men?
* or will the climate of hatred towards journalists and the desire for ever-tighter media regulation, drifting across the Channel as a result of the hacking scandal, increasingly force newspapers and broadcasters to kowtow to authority and resort to reporting the news by press release?
This is how I have reported on Mr Strauss-Kahn's prospects once he returns to France:
With the criminal case over barring a successful appeal by lawyers for the accuser,, the thoughts of many in France turned to one dominant question: does Dominique Strauss-Kahn have a political future?
... a successful prosecution deemed impossible, the man known globally since his arrest in May as DSK is free to return to France and, theoretically, become a candidate for next year's presidential elections.
But colleagues in the opposition socialist party (PS) are at an advanced stage of their selection process. An immediate revival of his ambitions is therefore considered highly improbable.
While the sex charges in New York may have represented the most serious legal problem facing Mr Strauss-Kahn, they were not the only ones.
His accuser is suing him in civil proceedings and he is likely to be questioned in France about a writer's claim that she was molested by him eight years ago.
Even so, some political figures in France believe Mr Strauss-Kahn could still play an important role in shaping the short and medium-term future of their country.
Opinion is mixed but the DSK factor is not ruled out even in the camps of other socialists vying for the presidential candidacy.
"I think in the months and years ahead, DSK will once again be able to play a major role in French politics," said Andre Vallini, a leading PS parliamentarian and regional council leader, on the news channel LCI.
Mr Vallini is close to Francois Hollande, who is the favourite to be chosen to stand for the PS. Mr Hollande was not said to be among the prominent PS politicians Mr Strauss-Kahn called while on bail in New York.
An opposing view was taken by a polling specialist, Stephane Rozes, who said it would be difficult for Mr Strauss-Kahn to regain his past status.
"The French don't want to know about the private and notably the sex lives of politicians, but when it is spread as it has been then the presidential potential of the person concerned is, de facto, affected," Mr Rozes said.
But Pierre Moscovici, previously close to Mr Strauss-Kahn and now coordinating Mr Hollande's primaries campaign, added: "When he chooses to resume his place in public debate, his would be a valuable voice for the left and the country in the current crisis.
"But he must be allowed time and freedom to make the decisions that he considers right."
What role DSK might play is not yet clear.
Earlier in what the French media call Mr Strauss-Kahn's "summer of hell", there were suggestions on the left that he could be summoned to office as a cabinet minister if next year's parliamentary elections, which quickly follow the poll for the Elysee Palace, produce a socialist government.
He has previously served as minister of finance, the economy and industry and, with his recent experience as an effective IMF chief, could easily be seen as a safe pair of hands in handling the budget.
Or Mr Strauss could, in the context of a socialist administration, act as a key adviser on economic policy.
With the other legal pitfalls still lying in his path, some observers may find it odd that any future in public life is contemplated for a man whose conduct, even on a charitable interpretation of events in Room 2806 of a New York Sofitel, would mean probable political ruin in such countries as the US and Britain.
But swift resolution of the outstanding matters would alter thinking in France a great deal.
French commentators have speculated on the possibility of an out-of-court settlement of the chambermaid's civil claim and abandonment by French prosecutors, because of the time lapse, of the inquiry into allegations by the journalist and author Tristane Banon that she had to fight him off when she interviewed him in 2003.
Then the way would be clear for a spectacular comeback.
The Journal du Dimanche newspaper has cited a string of sources with favourable opinions on DSK. The calming, forgiving and almost maternal role of his French-American wife, Anne Sinclair, was emphasised.
Referring to one of Mr Strauss-Kahn's many supposed affairs, the paper quoted someone it described as close to the couple as saying his decision to end it and stay with the wife he loved "showed he is just a skirt-chaser, not a rapist".
It is also true that the French body politic has a capacity to allow the rehabilitation of those who fall from grace. Alain Juppe, a former prime minister, commands considerable respect as foreign secretary despite a conviction and suspended prison sentences for his role in a corruption scandal at Paris city hall.
The former president, Jacques Chirac, is France's most popular contemporary political figure even though he is soon due to stand trial on charges arising from the same events, dating from when he was mayor of Paris and Mr Juppe a trusted lieutenant.
Until May 14, the day he was arrested while seated in first class on an Air France jet preparing to leave JFK Airport for Paris, DSK was widely considered the man most likely to sweep Nicolas Sarkozy from power and become the next president of France.
If that challenge now seems beyond him, few would argue with confidence that public service has seen the last of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
That was from The National, Abu Dhabi.
My friend Kim Willsher has also offered her characteristically comprehensive and well-written assessment of events, in The Guardian:
The spectacular collapse of the rape case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn has prompted a bout of soul-searching in France amid fresh debate over how clean the former presidential hopeful has emerged from his American "ordeal".
As Strauss-Kahn celebrated his victory and prepared to collect his passport from police in New York, friends and supporters in France declared him blanchi – literally whitened – cleared and vindicated after accusations that had blackened his name and stymied his attempt to become the next president of France in 2012.
Others, even those from the traditional left, believe that the Socialists' one-time "providential man" will fly home less blanchi and more a grubby shade of grey.
Commentators veered between outrage at Strauss-Kahn being paraded in handcuffs after his arrest in May and admiration for the US justice system's dealing with the case rapidly and letting him go.
The philosopher Daniel Salvatore Schiffer, a Strauss-Kahn defender, described the court's decision as "courageous and honest" and said it had allowed the emergence of "if not the truth, which we will probably never know … at least impartiality."
But Le Monde pointed out that Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was forced to quit as head of the International Monetary Fund, had not been "totally whitened" as the case had been dropped because of a lack of witnesses or proof that the "hasty sexual relations" between him and chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo were forced.
On the eve of the Socialist party's summer conference in the seaside town of La Rochelle, where six rival candidates for the presidential nomination will gather this weekend, some felt the return of the left's former champion was an unwelcome distraction.
Most of his supporters are now backing other candidates, including frontrunners François Hollande and Martine Aubry. Hollande has spoken of Strauss-Kahn's economic expertise being "useful to his country" but nobody is seriously suggesting the rules of the primary election be altered to allow him to stand.
Le Monde believed the events in New York had put paid to Strauss-Kahn's 2012 presidential ambitions, having "lifted a veil on aspects of his personality, his relations with women and with money".
"Like most French male politicians he felt protected by our tradition of respect for private matters," it wrote, adding that he was the "victim of his own carelessness".
An editorial by essayist Pascal Bruckner in the newspaper, headlined "The DSK affair reveals a sad image of America", highlighted the cultural chasm between French views of sex and relationships and those of "Les Anglo-Saxons". Bruckner described a sheriff on a Florida beach ordering him to cover his naked two-year-old daughter, as an example of the US's "problem with sex", which he described as "twisted puritanism" resulting from the alliance of "feminism and the Republican right".
France's national philosopher, Bernard-Henri Lévy, who outraged many with a string of outbursts in which he described the treatment of his friend in America as "utterly grotesque" because he was "not some commoner", was equally outspoken. In an extraordinary interview with Nice Matin newspaper he described the chambermaid's defence as "a masquerade" and said her lawyer had "reached the summits of obscenity".
Many French papers have contrived to portray Strauss-Kahn as the victim of a mendacious, money-grabbing woman and a foreign legal system. A front-page cartoon in Le Monde after Diallo's lawyers launched a civil suit against Strauss-Kahn showed her vacuuming bank notes from DSK's pockets.
The affair also led to qualms about Strauss-Kahn and his heiress wife Anne Sinclair's "gauche caviar" lifestyle. That they were paying more than £30,000 a month for a Manhattan townhouse, £170,000 a month for detectives and lawyers and had produced more than £3.5m in bail guarantees sat uneasily with some Socialists.
Another stain yet to be blanchi is the attempted rape investigation Strauss-Kahn faces in France. The journalist and writer Tristane Banon claims he assaulted her when she went to interview him in 2003, accusing him of behaving like a "rutting chimpanzee", allegations his lawyers have dismissed as "fantasy".
"Sex, lies and a case dismissal," wrote the tabloid France Soir. "But DSK hasn't yet completely finished with the justice system."
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