Top Secret French military exercises

[Ollie]

You traitor Nev!  :TT

That post is a real mess....  There is one country I wouldn't like to attack and it's France.  These guys have weaponry like you can't imagine!

Yikes!

The whole perspective I have about France during the War changed when I read a WW2 History book written by a French chap.  He explained the socio-political situation and he really made a good job at telling why the country crumbled.  His conclusions were something like the men were good to fight, but the leaders lived in the past, save for a few like de Gaulle who believed in the tank.

Me and one of my friend, wessa think that Italy is lamer than France when it's time for battle.  Italians make good wine, good food, classical music, good airplanes. but they just can't fight since the eagle saying SPQR is not in front of them.  I think you can't be called name because you like a good life over battle, no?

[nev]

olivier, the thing with the French isn't the fact they got whupped by the Germans (along with everyone else) but their attitude when they got liberated  - as one historian put it "A mixture of arrogant contempt and open hostility" an attitude which still prevails in France today.  Compare that with the joyous scenes which prevailed in Holland when they were liberated - actually halting the allied advance.  Stephen Ambrose talks about it with remarkable candour in Band of Brothers.  The French today despise the americans, its like theyhate the fact that they have to be grateful to them for liberating them, then protecting them from communism for 50 years.  And as a Brit, with all the problems we have with the EU, 95% are caused by France and Germany.  If it wasn't for them, I'd be delighted with the idea of EU membership and even the single currency...but as long as they try and rule Europe like its still the 19th century ....(thank goodness for Eastern Europe!).

And as for the idea of an EU army?  Bah!  This current crisis has proved what I always believed - that it would never get used cos the French and Germans, when the rubber hits the road, have no guts and would never, ever deploy the troops - whatever the need - prefering to discuss and debate endlessly while Rome burns around them.  So France and Germany don't want to go to war - fine, but can't they see that dividing the security council, is only making war *more* likely?  Saddams strategy is to make the slightest concessions, just enough to keep the likes of France convinced that Saddam Hussein is about to turn into Mother Teresa, nowhere near enough to satisfy the US.  Its worked for the past 12 years and its still working now.  "Speak softly but carry a big stick" is the way to do diplomacy, but right now, thanks to France and Germany, that big stick is more like a broken twig.

[nev]

The 1st page is the best, after that it starts to flame...

[a href=\"http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~thunderpuck/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18374\" target=\"_blank\"]Top secret french military exercises[/a]

[Ollie]

I always thought that French were laughed at because of the way they got beaten in 1940...  But you say that the French don't like the Yanks, it's the politicians that despise the American imperialism.  The French people usually love all the American stuff, they like to hear about bear trapping in Canada!  

As I see it, it's a good thing that there is opposition to the war in Iraq, since I've never been a great partisan of unilateralism.  We live as a community, so let's act like one.  Restrain has never been bad.

One last point : the French always had a little communist side, so it's not like they were really afraid of the Reds.  

Lastly, if you look at how the French commanders have been treated during the war by the Brits and the Yanks, it's easy to see why they weren't so happy at the end.  The Allied let the Poles, the Czech, etc... fight the Nazis, but the French were under scrutiny, they had to fight the system before fighting the ennemy.  And I'm not talking here about the occasional French soldier in a non-French unit, they always had inferior equipment and aircrafts, it was only at the end of the war they they finally got modern and up to date equipement for the most part.  Furthermore, France was seldom supported by the US, mainly in Algeria and Indonesia.  I am not saying that they should have been, that the wars were purposefull,but it's just food for thoughts.  I know a French WW2 veteran, so I know how he feels about the Allied during the war, and it's not hatred, but mistrust for the most part.