Posted on 06/05/2004 2:45:06 AM PDT by kattracks
June 5, 2004 -- PRESIDENT Bush travels to France today for the 60th anniversary commemoration ceremony of the allied D-Day landing in Normandy after an extraordinarily emotive commemoration in Washington, D.C., of the long-awaited World War II memorial. A very different reception awaits Bush in France this weekend, where the French are gearing up for their own 60th anniversary celebration. In Basse-Normandie, where the allied landings occurred, two vice presidents of the regional council announced they were refusing to take part in any ceremonies where Bush or Russian President Vladimir Putin were present. "What image will we send of Normandy to Arab and Islamic countries by receiving Bush and Putin with pomp and circumstance?" one of them asked the French daily, Le Monde.What image will France send to Arab and Islamic countries? How about the message France sends to its own citizens, or to its former allies across the Atlantic, who left 66,000 of their fellow citizens behind while liberating France twice from tyranny in the 20th century?
"The paradox of June 6," opinined former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, a Socialist, is that Bush "is the exact opposite of the values that make us love America." Le Monde apparently agreed: "Should we even offer this podium to Bush, since he never hesitates to compare the struggle for freedom in Europe that was the battle of Normandy to today's war in Iraq?" a reporter editorialized.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
"What image will we send of Normandy to Arab and Islamic countries by receiving Bush and Putin with pomp and circumstance?"
Lessee....
1. That freedom and democracy are worth dying for even in a country far away and your own is not directly threatened?
2. That America can invade a country then walk away?
3. That the French were beaten and couldn't do it themselves without a coalition of the willing?
4. That years of trying to appease agressors didn't help them for spit?
"What image will France send to Arab and Islamic countries? How about the message France sends to its own citizens, or to its former allies across the Atlantic, who left 66,000 of their fellow citizens behind while liberating France twice from tyranny in the 20th century?"
The FROGs just don't get it, no one is going to kiss them and turn them into a prince.
The French seem to NOT want to see the parallels between the two situations. Hitler: politics of appeasement, regional threat genocide bully who no one wanted to deal with (Chamberlain). Saddam: politics of appeasement (France, Russia, Germany etc), regional threat (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia), genocide (Kurds in north Shi’a in South).
I wonder if the French, a colonial power that truly DOES occupy countries to this day sees itself really so different than that of a old, economically small “former” power that still has possessions and wants to be a big guy on the block. Ask those subjects of theirs in the Pacific where they tested A-bombs even just a few years ago what they think of the French.
Sad that the Germans and French learned NOTHING from history. They point and shake their finger at us but live in a world where little bully dictators tell them what and how to do. They lack the guts in their society and politics to act and would rather ignore the REAL issues. Blame the US and snub your nose at them. After all, the US won’t blow something up in Paris, but the Islamists will! So out of their cowardice to deal with the real issues at hand (They also have over 5,000,000 Muslims in France), the French and Germans will insult and attack THE nation that is actively engaged and DOING something in that region.
They are pathetic people.
We need to bring the bodies of our dead soldiers who fought for France home. The French soil is not a fit place for brave Americans.
Its 60 years since D-Day and they spit on us. President Bush should have said to the Eurotrash, we're digging up our dead and bringing them home to be reburied in peace in the land they love and where their sacrifices will be remembered by a grateful nation. The Eurotrash hate our guts and take us for granted. I wouldn't give them the time of day.
From all over Europe, not just France. And sent them the bill for the costs involved.
Disgusting. The only good that can come of this is that the people of the world can see these people for the ungrateful unprincipled terrorist-appeasing cretins they are.
I hope that we are not called upon to liberate France again for it would be difficult to muster the passion required to save a country that can produce this, and think that it is civilized.
That's asking waaaaaaaaaay too much. Instead we'll get the typical "look, the French don't approve waaaah" crap we always get.
They are pathetic people who will have to defend themselves without our assistance when their resident Islamonazis turn on them. I trust the house of Dior is working on a smart new line of burhkas.
That Europeans then and Europeans now cannot clean up their our mess.
As if by default, the United States - not the United Nations - had become the policeman of the world. That world changed radically on 9/11 when preemptive action, as the means to insure our national security, became the United States policy.
So be it.
Did anyone see the televised protests in Rome yesterday during Bush's visit? There were protestors beating on drums and holding American flags with swastikas spraypainted on them. It was enough to make me sick.
It was a small demonstration -- 10-15 K max. CNN reported 500,000.
I have a better idea. We wait for france to be conquered by Al Qaeda (it's only a matter of time if the french do not WAKE-UP), and THEN we FINALLY wipe france (and Al Qaeda) from the face of Europe. We literally kill two birds with one stone!
LLS
"National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice sounded an optimistic note when she briefed reporters on the upcoming talks with Chirac on Tuesday. "Whatever differences we had in the past, that a free and prosperous and stable Iraq is a linchpin and a key to a stable Middle East is understood, and that people are looking for ways that they can help to get that done."
"We Americans are such interminable optimists. The French know better, and they are biding their time, sharpening their knives and keeping their rifles oiled. President, en garde. "
*****
The French did not like America and did not cooperate with America long before GWB was even in politics. They have been able to personalize the antipathy toward the US to our President because of the nasty way that American democrats have been vilifying him for the past 4 years. If our "loyal opposition" were really "loyal" the foreign press would not be so emboldened.
Screw the French. They weren't worth the trouble then..........they aren't worth the trouble now.
F the French.
If Bush plays his cards right and unloads on the ungrateful french and truly puts them in their (very low) place with something along the lines of Chirac's telling Eastern Europe to shut up, he can win the election this weekend. I hope the idiotically optomistic 'white house advisor' cited in the article reads some of the comments on this thread and feeds them to our President's speech writers.
Mr. President, the French and Germans diplomacy is at root their anti-American domestic policy spilling onto the world stage. Their opposition is not principled, it is domestic politics. Shoot back. Mock the pathetic French on their home turf on the day they have to most aware of their patheticness. Remind them we paid the price for their freedom twice, and now they begrudge us paying the price for 50 million more. You can play nice and diplomatically, but your hopes are misplaced, they have staked their domestic political future on anti-Americanism. They will not help. You toss the diplomatic niceties aside, and shoot back with what YOUR domestic audience wants to hear, you win your second term this weekend.
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