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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: FeliciaCat
How do you separate the men from the boys in France? With a crowbar
To: schaketo
Q: What is the difference between a frenchwoman and a basketball team?
A: The basketball team showers after 4 periods.
To: Sparta
Three doctors are at lunch when the one doctor brings up the easiest surgery he's ever done.
Dr.#1 'Ya know, I just did an operation on an accountant and, man, was it easy. I opened him up and everthing was in numerical order, completely in balance!'
Dr.#2 chimes in 'Oh, I can top that. Electricans are the best to operate on, everything is color coordinated.'
Dr.#3 laughs and says 'I have both of you beat. The easiest operation is on a Frenchman. There are no guts, no spine, no balls and if you ever get confused...the head and ass are interchangable.'
To: schaketo
There is a time to stop bashing the French - when France becomes majority Muslim. Then it will be time to start bombing.
124
posted on
07/11/2003 8:26:47 PM PDT
by
thoughtomator
(Objects in post may be funnier than they appear)
To: schaketo
Froma Harrop Sounds like someone blowing chunks!
Time to invade Normandie again!
To: Sparta
"I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me."
--- General George S. Patton
To: All
What is this nonsense of people refusing to have French kids as exchange students? Has this actually happened, as I missed that in this column. If so, nice going whoever is refusing to have the French come...:)
Quite frankly though, in my 4 years of high school, I do not remember a single French person coming, not one. We had Germans overflowing, but not one French kid. Not a single one.
So color me a bit skeptical.
127
posted on
07/11/2003 8:32:56 PM PDT
by
rwfromkansas
("There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write 'damnation' with your fingers." C.H. Spurgeon)
To: TheGeezer
I assume it is on the editorial page.
If not, we need to write the editor of the newspaper, as this is some of the most blatant bias in a 'news' article I have ever seen.
Quite frankly, I don't think it is actually an article though. I appears to be a column.
128
posted on
07/11/2003 8:35:17 PM PDT
by
rwfromkansas
("There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write 'damnation' with your fingers." C.H. Spurgeon)
To: Burkeman1
They were in the first Gulf War but didn't want to be in this war. So what? Why the protest?The number three man in Iraq, after Shwarzkopf and De Billere,(the British General) was a French General. It wasnt revealed until a week before Gulf War I started, this same General was the head of the France -Iraq Friendship Society. He never told anyone, it was dug up by a member of the press, I believe. That kind of duplicity, that kind of blatant disrespect, deserves the contempt the French are feeling now. The French suck...period.
129
posted on
07/11/2003 8:40:50 PM PDT
by
cardinal4
(The Senate Armed Services Comm; the Chinese pipeline into US secrets)
To: schaketo
What a narrow Point of View this writer has. My mom, born in Italy, and in her late 60s, has told me many times that bashing the French has a several hundred year history, longer than the USA's existence in fact!
130
posted on
07/11/2003 8:42:47 PM PDT
by
HitmanLV
(I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.)
To: cardinal4
Thanks for that nonsense.
131
posted on
07/11/2003 8:44:13 PM PDT
by
Burkeman1
(If you see ten troubles comin down the road, Nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.)
To: schaketo
PLEASE......Stop bashing us!
To: Burkeman1
So its ok for a coaltion member to conceal an agenda favoring the very country they are fighting?
133
posted on
07/11/2003 8:46:22 PM PDT
by
cardinal4
(The Senate Armed Services Comm; the Chinese pipeline into US secrets)
To: Burkeman1
Waiting to see how "we" do so myself.
But as Condi Rice said that is what we are going to do,I am willing to believe we are going to do so.
Not to my particular, personal level of satisfaction, certainly, but whatever level it reaches, France can be eternally gratefull that this administration has not sought my input on the matter.
134
posted on
07/11/2003 8:47:55 PM PDT
by
sarasmom
(Punish France.Ignore Germany.Forgive Russia.(Tell Turkey to lay off the hookah).)
To: schaketo
It's completely up to the French. When they stop back-biting and sniveling I'll throttle back a notch.
To: schaketo
To: cardinal4
Um- ask Bush that question.
137
posted on
07/11/2003 9:07:18 PM PDT
by
Burkeman1
(If you see ten troubles comin down the road, Nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.)
To: sarasmom
I think humanity is grareful you have not been sought on any issue whatsoever.
138
posted on
07/11/2003 9:11:26 PM PDT
by
Burkeman1
(If you see ten troubles comin down the road, Nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.)
To: mabelkitty
LOL !
Great post!
139
posted on
07/11/2003 9:13:04 PM PDT
by
Mihalis
(The French boycott continues)
To: Burkeman1
Cold war got won,didnt it?
hehehe
140
posted on
07/11/2003 9:34:16 PM PDT
by
sarasmom
(Punish France.Ignore Germany.Forgive Russia.(Tell Turkey to lay off the hookah).)
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