HOW DARE THE FRENCH FORGET

New York Post ^ | 2/10/03 | STEVE DUNLEAVY

[Republican Red]

February 10, 2003 -- COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France - They stand only 3 feet high, but they're towering mountains of sacrifice. I'm standing in the American Cemetery. Gray clouds hang low as if in mourning for the nearly 10,000 young Americans buried beneath crosses and Stars of David that stretch as far as the eye can see.

[dasboot]

A caller to the Liddy show just floated the idea that Americans should take up a collection to finance the exhumation and bringing home of the remains of our was dead at Normandy.

[Jewels1091]

wow..makes me so mad! I hope no one vacations or spends money over there!

[dasboot]

war dead

[RoseofTexas]

I've been teary eye ever since I saw the picture of the BRAVE soldiers who are buried there!! That picture needs to be posted here OVER AND OVER AGAIN, so that we will NEVER FORGET the great Sacrifice of life and freedom our men gave!! PLEASE POST IT!

[areafiftyone]

That is an interesting idea. It seems those cemetaries will be lost on future generations who don't want to know or don't care to know how they came to become a free country due to the Americans. It would probably make alot of American families happy to take their loved ones home. This would have to pick up alot of momentum to even have a glimmer of hope though.

[theDentist]

This reminds me of a story about LBJ, when he was majority leader in the Senate. He'd gone to France and was meeting with DeGualle (sp?). DeGaulle was ranting on and on about America and LBJ was quickly losing patience. So he interrupted and told DeGualle that he was going to go back to Washington and order the Senate to pass a bill to "dig up the remains of every American soldier buried in France, and ship them back to the US for burial, starting with those at Normandy." DeGualle never spoke to LBJ in that manner again.

That's one of the few stories about LBJ that makes me smile.

So maybe we should pass a bill to return the remains of our soldiers home to America again, starting with those in Normandy?

[PhiKapMom]

If that happens, let me know because I want to contribute. I don't know when I have been as livid at a Country as I am at France. We sacrificed many American lives to liberate that Country -- how soon they forget!

The French need to get a clue -- "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it..."

Siding with Germany only makes German Nationalism grow stronger and you would think that would worry the French. The European Union seems to be all about giving power back to the Germans over Europe. Believe the Eastern European countries who lived so long under the rule of the Communist can see it but the French sure do not seem to understand!

[theDentist]

See my post #7.

[AnAmericanMother]

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

[dasboot]

I know there are many French who don't like their socialist government. Maybe the threat of bringing our boys home will embolden them to act for a regime-change in France.

If that doesn't happen, I think it prudent to get our dead out of there, before their resting places are physically desecrated.

Any US security there?

[cynicom]

My brother fought across France into Germany. Died to free France because they would not fight for their own freedom. Rotten French.

[Eva]

My husband's college history professor used to say that all wars came down to economics. The French and the Germans think that they have too much to lose in a war with Iraq. Maintenance of the status quo is imperative to save their economies.

France and Germany thought that they were on a role with the formation of the European Union. They thought that they were going to control all of Europe and finally become the world power to compete with the US. Now, we have thrown that all into doubt with our war with Iraq.

[Area51]

Hey France...

You bunch of Cheese eating surrender Monkeys!

[PhiKapMom]

No security there to speak of. French kicked our military out in the mid 1960's (finally looked it up) when they withdrew from NATO.

That may be the only thing that wakes up the citizens of France as to what their Government has become!

[dasboot]

My childhood mentor was liberated from a POW camp by French Forces of the Interior.

My wife's uncle was a bomber-pilot, shot down over France, and whisked safely back to Britain by that same FFI.

Has that sentiment evaporated completely from among the French? I think not; but those freedom-fighters must now, again, act. I don't hear their voices. Are they speaking, but filtered out by the media?

[JeanLM]

The Wall Street Journal had a quote made by Colin Powell at the Davos conference recently. I think he said it about as well as can be said,

" We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly in the last hundred years...and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in."

I haven't seen this reported anywhere else, which is surprising for such a powerful statement by a world leader.

[Charles Martel]

A caller to the Liddy show just floated the idea that Americans should take up a collection to finance the exhumation and bringing home of the remains of our was dead at Normandy.

Here's a thought: Pull the plug on the planned national WWII Memorial and use the donated funds to return those men to American soil. Heck, maybe Speilberg and Hanks will re-work the commercial.

[Mamzelle]

When the French embassies turned our desperate diplomats away in Tehran, the Canadians gave us sanctuary. Wither the Canadians, now? Same with the few French who actually resisted the Nazis.

[RoughDobermann]