Time to stop bashing French

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | July 11, 2003 | Froma Harrop

[gcruse]

Just for starters, we avoided the murderous mobs,
 kangaroo courts, and wholesale executions that were hallmarks of the French affair.

That's probably because, as I have been convinced by
another freeper, ours was a war of independence, not
a revolution.  We were not at war with an entrenched
government run by other Americans.

[BunnySlippers]

Nut we just started. :(

[BunnySlippers]

But we just started. :(

[FloridaBoy]

We need to keep bashing and boycotting. They haven't cried uncle yet.

[dogbrain]

"The gleeful stomping on all things from France has progressed from the moronic to the pathetic."

well so much for those who have ever called me a "pathetic moron"....

(YOU know who you are)

[D Rider]

Actually about a third sided with the British, a third supported the "un-revolution" War of Independance and about a third were fence sitters. The third that sided with the Brittish were pretty well established and ran the civil government. Yet no guillotines. And other than someone who changed sides, like Benidict Arnold (which is treason by everyones deffinition), no mass executions. The non-revolution argument really doesn't hold up.

The big difference between france and America was mostly a moral one.

[AnAmericanMother]

We were not at war with an entrenched government run by other Americans.

Better ask Governor Hutchinson, and all the other Tory administrators & legislators who got caught in the middle. See here.

Many battles were fought "brother against brother", with members of the same family on both sides. You just don't hear much about the Loyalists because they lost and fled for their lives, leaving all their property behind.

[AnAmericanMother]

I agree that the American revolution was more morally based than the French - I can't imagine the colonies throwing up a Robespierre or even a Danton - Sam Adams was about as far as we went in the direction of a mob leader, and the cooler heads quickly prevailed and shoved him off the stage.

But I think we also have to consider that the American colonies had no entrenched and established feudal system with the hereditary serfs and "brushwood folk" on the bottom of the pile. And our middle class was much, much larger. As a result the revolution was led by the prosperous bourgeoisie who had much to lose if things got out of hand -- unlike the French who were led by the intelligentsia who really had little to lose. Napoleon sneered that England was "a nation of shopkeepers", but if you want to keep things organized and running smoothly, without any guillotines or blood running in the streets, call in the shopkeepers. They're douce, sensible folk with their heads on straight.

[jwalsh07]

Not in my time zone.

[Burkeman1]

I am just curious. Why not "Freep" the Russians or the Germans or the Belgians? All of them oppossed our war in Iraq. Why the French? Because they didn't support us in war that was elective? They were in the first Gulf War but didn't want to be in this war. So what? Why the protest?

[Drango]

Why the French?

My first reaction is a flip "'cause they're French" response but you've asked an honest question and I'll try to respond in kind.

To a large extent the French were the most vocal opponents of the Iraq war. They weren’t just neutral, they mobilized others. Thus they generated a higher level of animosity.

Second of all, there aren't 74,000 American soldiers buried in Russia, Belgium, Germany. So I guess the deeper question is why aren't you against the French?

[Burkeman1]

We went into WWI and WWII for our own reasons and not to "save" France. My Grandfather served in WWI and said that war was BS and none of our business. Gratitude is a dogs disease and the French ain't dogs. Why are you protesting? Because they didn't want to fight a war that was not in their national interests? Are the French supposed to support the USA no matter what we do because of WWII? If the cause in Iraq was so right what do you care that France didn't join us?

[timestax]

We need to keep bashing and boycotting. They haven't cried uncle yet.

DITTO !!

[sarasmom]

The French will be punished because they went above and beyond "not agreeing" with the stated interests of the USA regarding Iraq.
They have rather pointedly been conducting an anti-USA stance via diplomatic,economic and propoganda means, and actively supporting anti-USA terrorist regimes methods, for well over a decade.
The righteous grassroots backlash they are currently whimpering about is the only the tip of the iceburg.
They have not yet really started to pay the price for their actions.
But I trust Dr. Rice and President Bush to follow through on her promise to punish France.

[Burkeman1]

Punish France? I would love to see how we do it? What nonsense!

[cardinal4]

What kind of name is Froma Harrop, French?

[Sparta]

[jagrmeister]

Nice try, Fromma. I just came back from a week and a half in Italy- everyone there was so nice and helpful, especially in Sicily. I had a stopover in France coming and going- almost to a man, everyone there had a snotty attitude. The French are a wretched people. Mocking the French is always "in". No spineless liberal twit can change that.

[JonH]

Was this written by Jayson Blair? A fact check would point out that DeGaulle did not pull France out of NATO. He simply withdrew the French Military from the NATO forces.

The entire nation of France can slip into the sea for all I care. I for one will focus my visits in London and Rome.

[Oztrich Boy]

The gleeful stomping on all things from France has progressed from the moronic to the pathetic.

Actually if you take the plain meaning of this sentence, it states that the gleeful stomping began on moronic French things, and has now progressed to stomping on pathetic French things.