Trump suggests France would have been defeated without U.S.

The Columbian ^ | November 13, 2018 | Darlene Superville, The Associated Press

[2ndDivisionVet]

President Donald Trump escalated his verbal assaults against France on Tuesday, suggesting that America’s stalwart European ally would have been vanquished in both world wars if not for the military firepower provided by the United States.

Trump tweeted about a suggestion by French President Emmanuel Macron that Europe build up its militaries because the continent can no longer depend on the U.S. for defense. Macron had also said Europe needs to protect itself against cyberthreats from China, Russia and the U.S.

Macron’s comments were inaccurately reported and Trump continues to misrepresent them, seemingly for political hay. The French leader’s office said Trump had lumped together Macron’s remarks on protecting against cyber-threats and “interference in our democracies” from “China, Russia and even the United States” with Macron’s later statement on military defense....

[Rockingham]

The French know it to be true. The result is that, as is often the case when one does a great favor for someone, we have ended up with a large bill and an ingrate.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

The Nazis may very well have been extracted from France, but it would have been the Soviets that did it.

Without the Western allies providing them with materiel and holding fronts on the south and west they probably couldn't have prevailed.

[matt1234]

One of the "German" units that defended Berlin in 1945 was an SS unit comprised of French soldiers: 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French).

[RightField]

Remember that old joke, "Q. How many Frenchman does it take to defend Paris? A. No one knows ... it's never been done."

Fercryingoutloud ... France has never defended itself. How did Normandy gets its name? Charles III ceded the area to the Vikings over a thousand years ago to appease the Vikings (Northmen) who were plundering Paris regularly. My dad, who fought in France in WWII, had absolutely no respect for the French after the war. Oh, the stories he told.

[DesertRhino]

Very little of that arrived before winter of 41 and Stalingrad. The Germans had two or three months to achieve their victory in Russia, but they never had a realistic chance either way. Russia’s too big, Germany was too morally bankrupt, and Germany was too small. But Reich fans always have this lost cause and thinking where they believe the Germans could have done it. The Germans were viewed as Invincible from the first two years of the war where they rolled over pathetically weak Nations. They simply didn’t have the military machine or the ability to take on the Soviet Union, much less the British Empire are the United States

[richardtavor]

That is not a suggestion, it is a fact..However, the US didn’t save Europe. God did!

[kanawa]

I’ve lived a while but this is the first time I’ve encountered the surname, Superville.

[DownInFlames]

They were not defeated in WWI. Germany never entered Paris. We pulled their ass out of the fire.

[vigilence]

So in the space of one week Macron announces plans to honor Marshal Petain, the French leader who collaborated with Hitler and deported French Jews to Nazi concentration camps, declares that nationalism is unpatriotic and urges the creation of a European Army in support of a European Empire. Yet the AP goes after Trump? Typical.

[rktman]

Uh, they were.

[Dahoser]

Let's stop playing around about what the President said from a third party and read it directly instead.

[vigilence]

And the Soviets would have tried to occupy after Germany was defeated.

[PapaBear3625]

Not really. The war on the Eastern Front had already turned bad for the Germans by the time Pearl Harbor hit. Germany never had any chance of prevailing in Russia save for one long shot.

If the Russians had beaten the Germans, Europe would have traded Nazi domination for Soviet domination. The Soviets would have liquidated a higher proportion of the European population than the Nazis did.

[laplata]

Thanks for that.

[reed13k]

My understanding of history is they already WERE defeated and the US, UK, and some non-capitulators helped to LIBERATE France.

[Covenantor]

The same Marichal Perain that the liberated French triedcfor treason and imprisoned, where he died in 1951?

Well. Macron going along with...

[dsc]

I read the other day that if the Marines had not come in at Belleau Wood, the Germans would have taken Paris. Some conjecture that would have caused the allies to lose.

[jmaroneps37]

Suggests? The French were beaten in six weeks of the summer of 1940. Anyone who says France would not be speaking German without the blood of American troops is a liar an idiot or both.

[jerod]

The Nazi flag would be flying all over Europe if it weren’t for Churchill and America entering the war. The Nazi’s even offered to leave England alone, as long as they could have mainland Europe to themselves. Churchill told them to piss off, but if Chamberlain and Lord Halifax had their way the Nazi’s would still be in power and likely loaded to the hilt with Nuclear weapons given to them by the likes of the Rosenberg’s and the Alger Hiss’s of this world.

Those who fail to remember history are bound to repeat it.