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I spent some time there recently. The French are proud and deeply patriotic. If focused, their military and intelligence services are effective and ruthless. AQ would likely regret attacking them.

Somewhere recently I either heard or read a U.S. serviceman discussing the French military assigned with our troops in Afghanistan. IIRC, he related how brave they were, and that some of them had to use names other than their own because their familes would be targeted in France by Islamists if their real identities were used.

Bring it on ! Maybe those yellow-bellies will grow a spine and some b*lls and take a stand for once !

I spent some time there recently. The French are proud and deeply patriotic. If focused, their military and intelligence services are effective and ruthless. AQ would likely regret attacking them.

Alot of our fellow Freepers posting here do not understand the history and culture of France and Africa, especially France and Algeria.

Algeria was once thought a part of France and in fact even today the South of France is referred to as 'Le Midi' meaning the middle, whereas Algeria was thought of as South France.

So Algerian Arabs are very much aligned with France in the same way as Puerto Ricans are to the USA. We can also look at Algerians that moved to France in the same way that Cubans moved to Florida.

Once this context is understood, and given that political correctness and multiculturalism has affected France in the same way as it has America, then one should be able to sympathize more with France's current dilemma..

Where criticism is deserved (IMO) is in the Oil-For-Food corruption and the delays that France caused in the invasion of Iraq. Rather than take an adversarial position to the USA in the UN as to Saddam Hussein's regime, France could have taken a neutral position while quietly demanding compensation or insurance/protection for its commercial interests in Iraq (Total, Elf, Fina etc.).

spent some time there recently. The French are proud and deeply patriotic. If focused, their military and intelligence services are effective and ruthless. AQ would likely regret attacking them.

Is this the same France who had the second largest military in Europe during the 1940's and surrendered to the Germans in a matter of days? I thought so.