Posted on 01/13/2015 6:57:13 PM PST by JOHN ADAMS
I yield to almost no-one in my contempt for the French, who typically despite Americans and Jews, and I have happily repeated the oft-told classified ad for a French rifle -- never fired, dropped once.
But it's got to be said: while the New York Times and goodness knows how many other American sources are hiding under their beds; while the FBI could do nothing for the originator of Everybody Draw Muhammad Day other than give her a new identity and help HER hide under a new bed, the French, at least some French, are calling out the lunatics who currently endanger Western Civilization. I forget which American showed up at a rally in Paris and said "Lafayette we are here," but the fact has to be faced that it's the French who are actually showing up for this war before everybody else except the Israelis, who have no choice unless they all want to move to Cleveland.
A year or two ago a different band if Islamic lunatics killed an Italian hostage who said, right before he died, "this is how an Italian dies." http://nypost.com/2004/04/16/hero-hostages-last-moments-ill-show-you-how-an-italian-dies-he-tells-thugs/ He meant standing up and without cringing in fear and without pretending he was being killed because he was guilty of something.
It's a bit odd that, 70 years after our Greatest Generation did it's thing, the nations that are formally, publicly, standing up to the current fascism are France and Italy.
I’m glad they are doing it, believe me. But the fact remains that they think we are barbaric for having a death penalty and for protecting our right to bear arms.
The American Left is sympathetic to Islam in its attack against liberty and Christianity.
As far as I’m concerned, most are afraid of Political Correctness more so than Islam.
I seem to remember a chap named Napoleon who came damned close to conquering the whole of Europe. I think he was using a French field army at the time.
And IIRC the generals who fought the American Civil War studied his campaigns to learn how to fight great battles.
I referring to this stupid joke that always acts like the French military is cowardly. Nothing in history remotely backs that up. They have been catastrophically defeated, but they have a record of fighting very hard.
Been a while since Americans showed the spirit of the Modern French. America has forgotten Lafayette and all that France has done for us—now even the President forgets them. Remember when Americans flew old bi-planes for the French in WW I—before we were at war? Many paid with their lives. Would that happen today? I think not. Sad turn of events!
I don’t think they are cowardly, I just disagree with them on some things of a practical nature.
30th April 1863. The Battle of Cameron, in Mexico.
62 Legionnaires and 3 Officers.
800 Mexican Calvary and two thousand foot soldiers.
The Mexican officer called on the French to surrender twice. "Merde"was the reply. Finally a surrender was accepted. 43 French dead, 17 wounded. 190 Mexicans died. Some of those 17 wounded died. Major Campos said "These are not men, they are demons", surveying the carnage
Excuse the ramble. However you might agree that to give a blanket condemnation to a whole country is not just. Each country has legends of at least one great act of courage by it's soldiers.
The Universal Soldier ( Hank Williams Sr).
And in every surrender, there is usually a moment when slaughter is the only other possible outcome. The British at Singapore were left with a Royal Navy that had been destroyed and complete loss of the air.
At Bataan, no rescue was coming for the American forces.
At Stalingrad, the Germans faced surrender or the death of everyone. No victory or escape was possible.
At Dunkirk, the Brits leaving was the only sane strategic choice. They could stay with the French, die, and leave England defenseless. Or they could retreat and prepare for the German attack.
The Germans in North Africa were cut off and surrendered by the tens of thousands.
Besides the American west against Indians, and the Japanese on islands, most battles are not fought to utter annihilation. Only armchair Generals think otherwise.
But the French soldier is a solid performer. Always has been, and still is. And generals everywhere in that era pretty much sucked.
Battle of Cameron, the end.
By 18:00, with ammunition exhausted, the last of Danjou’s soldiers, numbering only five, including Lt. Maudet, desperately mounted a bayonet charge. Two men fell outright, while the rest were surrounded. Victor Catteau, had leapt in front of Maudet in an effort to protect him, and died in the Mexican barrage. Major Campos ordered the legionnaires to surrender, to which Corporal Phillipe Maine answered, “We will surrender if you leave us our weapons and our equipment. You also have to promise to take care of our wounded lieutenant.”
When Campos brought the trio to Milan, he asked, “Is this all of them? Is this all of the men who are left?” Then, in amazement, he exclaimed, “These are not men! They are demons!”
Each year, the French Foreign Legion commemorates the battle of Camarón in its headquarters in Aubagne.
As promised, Lt. Maudet was treated on the battlefield by Dr. Francisco Talavera.
What about the Huguenots ???
They among others owe us a liberation and I hope to be able to thank them.
The only French who can be fairly slandered were some political leaders, but not their soldiers.
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yes the Vichy government...
and their Maginot line...
That line actually worked fine. But it was not extended along the border with Belgium for political reasons. And the Belgians and British were to hold the line in the North. Of course that failed.
It was a new kind of war that the British and French could not imagine.
But France learned the lesson from that. They went solo from NATO, and do not depend on NATO to defend them. They went solo with their nuclear arm as well. Unlike many other nations such as the UK which essentially integrated their nukes with ours.
“They among others owe us a liberation and I hope to be able to thank them.”
I think they’re already paid up.
There were 7,000 French troops fighting with us in the American Revolution. That’s more troops than George Washington commanded.
The pivot of our victory was when Admiral Comte de Grasse drove the British fleet away at the Battle of the Chesapeake Capes on September 5, 1781
With no British fleet to save him there was no escape for Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown where he was trapped by the combined forces of Washington’s army and Rochambeau’s 3,000 French marines. No French navy, no French troops, no American independence.
Your premises are not terribly accurate
I’m sure the French sleep better knowing you love them
Contempt is strong word
the French were part of SEATO instead..
South East Asia Treaty Organization
The US, Australia, New Zealand, France and was it India or Taiwan ???
“Despite its name, SEATO mostly included countries located outside of the region but with an interest either in the region or the organization itself. They were Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan (including East Pakistan, now Bangladesh), the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.[12]”- wiki
That their treatment was barbaric and it wasn’t enough that they wanted to leave, every effort was made to keep them there so they could be slaughtered in the most brutal ways imaginable. Their sin was existing.
“The French fought long and hard and the Collapse was the result of a new warfighting strategy the Nazis used. The whole world was unprepared.
The only French who can be fairly slandered were some political leaders, but not their soldiers.”
Thing is, that the French also had the Resistance and did a lot of vicious things to Nazis and collaborators behind closed doors. So they never really surrendered at all, just began more covert means of fighting.
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