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Time to stop bashing French
Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | July 11, 2003 | Froma Harrop

Posted on 07/11/2003 6:27:53 AM PDT by schaketo

It's been fun, but isn't it time to stop bashing the French? The gleeful stomping on all things from France has progressed from the moronic to the pathetic.

First, there was the dimwit stuff, like renaming french fries "freedom fries" in congressional cafeterias. Now we have student-exchange programs unable to find American homes willing to take in French students over the summer. That's depressing.

Like a chronic ailment, Francophobia flares now and then, especially when France tries to frustrate the United States on the world stage. The source of today's friction is, of course, the war in Iraq.

A walk down memory lane of low points in Franco-American relations inevitably pauses at 1966, when Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of NATO. Then, as now, American restaurant owners poured perfectly good French wine down the drain, at least while the news cameras were rolling.

Today, Americans and the French have one thing in common: They detest each other's leader. A good French friend of mine is a perfect example. She was an exchange student here years ago, has happy memories of waiting tables in Wyoming and is generally well disposed toward the United States.

But George W. Bush drives her nuts. And it's probably his style more than his politics. A Dick Cheney who pushes an individualistic, every-man-for-himself philosophy in a frank manner may be disagreed with but not hated. The spectacle of Bush alternating between tax cuts for the rich and displays of religious piety, however, sends my friend over the deep end.

Americans, for their part, have no obligation to admire French President Jacques Chirac (also a former exchange student in the United States). The cagey old pol has undoubtedly exploited anti-American feelings in France, also a latent force, to distract attention from his various scandals at home. For example, a now deceased member of his Gaullist Party describes on tape how he handed over $720,000 in cash to a Chirac aide as the boss, then mayor of Paris, looked on. Were it not for a court ruling that a sitting president cannot be dragged before a judge, Chirac might be behind bars today.

For Americans, lingering anger over Iraq obscures how very much France and the United States work together around the globe. Last month, Chirac announced that France would send its own special forces to fight alongside Americans in Afghanistan.

The French already play an active role there, training Afghan soldiers. "We still have french fries here," an American Special Forces officer, who runs a training center in Kabul, recently told the Wall Street Journal.

Bush has openly thanked the French for freely sharing their intelligence on terrorist activity with the United States. Fighting terrorism is, of course, very much in France's interest. Intelligence reports last year suggested that al-Qaeda cells were planning "spectaculars" in several countries at once, with France a prime target.

France keeps close tabs on potential terrorists, who are known to hide out among France's large Muslim population. In December, the French police picked up four suspects linked to a group that had planned to blow up the Strasbourg cathedral.

France has picked up other international burdens, notably Congo's civil war. Today, French troops have the unenviable job of keeping two warring tribes apart. Some of the combatants are 12-year-olds, who express an eagerness to shoot French soldiers.

The French are about to celebrate their Fourth of July, which happens to fall on the 14th of July. The 14th commemorates the destruction in 1789 of the Bastille, the political prison in Paris that symbolized despotism. Its liberation set off a revolution that was far bloodier than ours, but equally world-changing.

A key to the Bastille now hangs in the hall of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate. It was a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette, who had served under Washington in the Revolutionary War.

Bastille Day is going to be a working Monday in the United States and definitely a non-holiday for professional Francophobes. But Americans with an open mind should find some commonality in the French waving a blue, white and red flag 10 days after we waved red, white and blue - in both cases honoring revolutions for the rights of man. What a fine occasion to give our animosities a rest.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antifrenchhumor; cheeseeaters; french; frogs; nonallyfrance; surrendermonkeys
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To: Redbob
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.
101 posted on 07/11/2003 12:42:30 PM PDT by gcruse (There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women[.] --Margaret Thatcher)
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To: schaketo
Nut we just started. :(
102 posted on 07/11/2003 12:44:19 PM PDT by BunnySlippers
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To: schaketo
But we just started. :(
103 posted on 07/11/2003 12:44:36 PM PDT by BunnySlippers
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To: schaketo
We need to keep bashing and boycotting. They haven't cried uncle yet.
104 posted on 07/11/2003 12:48:19 PM PDT by FloridaBoy
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To: schaketo
"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)

105 posted on 07/11/2003 1:04:55 PM PDT by dogbrain
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To: gcruse
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.
106 posted on 07/11/2003 1:17:02 PM PDT by D Rider
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To: gcruse
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.

107 posted on 07/11/2003 5:30:28 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . there is nothing new under the sun.)
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To: D Rider; gcruse
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.

108 posted on 07/11/2003 5:35:29 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . there is nothing new under the sun.)
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To: schaketo
Not in my time zone.
109 posted on 07/11/2003 5:36:23 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: Drango
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?
110 posted on 07/11/2003 6:25:56 PM PDT by Burkeman1 (If you see ten troubles comin down the road, Nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.)
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To: Burkeman1
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?

111 posted on 07/11/2003 6:39:26 PM PDT by Drango (Just 5ยข a day will end pledge drives on FreeRepublic.)
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To: Drango
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?
112 posted on 07/11/2003 6:47:47 PM PDT by Burkeman1 (If you see ten troubles comin down the road, Nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.)
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To: FloridaBoy
We need to keep bashing and boycotting. They haven't cried uncle yet.

DITTO !!

113 posted on 07/11/2003 7:40:15 PM PDT by timestax
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To: Burkeman1
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.




114 posted on 07/11/2003 7:42:01 PM PDT by sarasmom (Punish France.Ignore Germany.Forgive Russia.(Tell Turkey to lay off the hookah).)
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To: sarasmom
Punish France? I would love to see how we do it? What nonsense!
115 posted on 07/11/2003 7:53:09 PM PDT by Burkeman1 (If you see ten troubles comin down the road, Nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.)
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To: schaketo
What kind of name is Froma Harrop, French?
116 posted on 07/11/2003 8:04:46 PM PDT by cardinal4 (The Senate Armed Services Comm; the Chinese pipeline into US secrets)
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To: schaketo

117 posted on 07/11/2003 8:07:03 PM PDT by Sparta (Tagline removed by moderator)
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To: schaketo
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.
118 posted on 07/11/2003 8:13:09 PM PDT by jagrmeister
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To: schaketo
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.

119 posted on 07/11/2003 8:16:29 PM PDT by JonH
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To: TheSpottedOwl
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.

120 posted on 07/11/2003 8:17:57 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy (hoist by his own petard. always funny.)
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