To: JesseHousman
One of the reasons the French military declined so miserably after the fall of Napoleon is that the French mothers insisted their sons be made to "stop bullying" in the normal commerce of school children. The bullied ones were told never to "strike back" (a sure way to terminate bullying at its very beginning), and those who persisted in bully tactics were put in isolation, "timed out". Without the normal and probably innate discharge of these childhood tensions and resolutions, the young male population grew up with the example of "make nice" to your rivals. When WW I and WW II came around, the French Army, now filled with these victims of childhood behavior modification, ran away when presented with a REAL challenge, first the Kaiser's Imperial Army, then the German Wehrmacht.
The Frenchification of America goes on. Perhaps the Muslims were basing their estimate of Americans on this line of logic. Americans, like the French, are "paper tigers" and will run away, because they are soft and unwilling to embrace the realities of confrontation.
To: alloysteel
When WW I and WW II came around, the French Army, now filled with these victims of childhood behavior modification, ran away when presented with a REAL challenge, first the Kaiser's Imperial Army, then the German Wehrmacht.>>
Farbeit for me to defend the French, but this is nonsense.
The French who grit their teeth at Verdun and said "they shall not pass!" were among the most valiant soldiers in history. Unfortunately, their sons were not.
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