As corny as it sounds - YES!
Germany - Italy - Japan - S. Korea - Afghanistan - Yes, even Iraq.
What is the key difference in us and the French? The French ARE a colonial power even to this day. They ARE imperialistic. Ask the people living on the Pacific Islands where they did nuke tests if they are free.
The origin of the Vietnam war was based on Frances attempt to regain it’s pre WWII colonial position. It was the involvement of Soviet and Chinese that prompted our involvement since we wanted to stop the spread of communism.
France is a colonial power. Most in Europe DO NOT want to touch that. They all want to be one big happy family and look over these minor details.
What were our interests in the Balkans? Somalia? Haiti? Liberia in 2003? France if given the chance would be a monster. Centralized power, media control, colonial ambitions, and and and. The only difference is that they are small, weak, and impotent in their military, economic and political base (Although the latter is growing). They have power through the UN, EU and see their chance in becoming a power-house through the EU which they see themselves leading with Germany. There is a “core” within Europe. France has even remarked about this several times. The French are “nationalists” and “socialists” and France as a nation is a “colonial power”.
Look at France’s refusal to put it’s nukes under NATO! Multilateral move? Hardly! All awhile the US is defined as a Unilateral nation by the extreme pro-left biased European media. The US who CREATED the UN, NATO and went to the UNSC for Iraq despite in all reality having all the reason and justification to attack Iraq already long before the question of a second resolution was even brought up.
What you have today is near absurd. The French fight their little colonial wars in Africa primarily and the MSM is largely silent. In 2003 we help stabilize Liberia with 4,500 US troops and leave shortly thereafter. We help the Philippines in fighting Abu Saeff, send troops to Haiti, still have troops in the Balkans, Sinai (MFO) and elsewhere, and “WE” get put into the corner and even classified by the MSM in our OWN NATION on par with dictatorships and foreign politicians even compare Bush to Hitler. Our MSM is near silent except for the "Quagmire-Vietnam-bla bla bla" on Iraq.
Imagine this- While US troops were still in the Balkans, fighting for a cause that Germany requested and we didn’t benefit from in any single way, while we were in S. Korea, Rep. of Georgia, Columbia and and and conducting counter narcotics to peace keeping even in THEIR back yard (Balkans), these terds refer to us as “hegemony”, “Imperialistic”, and make statements like “No blood for oil”.
Respect you earn, and the behavior of some of our friends across the Atlantic has been less than respectable in the last few years. France as a nation is a colonial power, even if the Europeans just choose to not talk about that.
Red6
...the behavior of some of our friends across the Atlantic has been less than respectable in the last few years centuries...
"Respect you earn, and the behavior of some of our friends across the Atlantic has been less than respectable in the last few years. France as a nation is a colonial power, even if the Europeans just choose to not talk about that.
Red6"
The disrespect comes from France & Germany seeing themselves as a direct global competitor of the USA. Global competitors don't exactly stay or become allies. Those days with at least Germany are over. France hasn't been our friend since the 1800's when they shipped over the statue of Liberty.
um - oh yes we talk about it.
France IS a colonial power - and it is the last of this romatic old fashion style. I think it's not a secret here.
As for the war on the balkans:
It was the other way around ! Miss Albright ran around in europe to find somebody to support the war against Milosevic who threatened to kill some more then a million Albanians in the Kosovo. She got the senators to grand her budgets for a war if she managed to ring the bells in europe. She was not succesful at first but then got aid from germany and only germany in the beginning. The UK joined in after germany said to join a war against milosevic.
Of course it's always easy to say - 'we didn't even benefit from that', but I think it's cynical. This war was a success. Thanks for help - only you could do it.