Knocking the French: Why?

NavySEALs.com ^ | July 30, 2006 | W. Thomas Smith Jr.

[SuzyQ2]

But we Americans seem to have short memories.

What else could explain the fact that we, generally speaking, so-often lambaste the French, calling them “cowards” for not allying themselves fully with us in every instance? We constantly throw in their faces the fact that we came to their rescue in World Wars I and II. And we’ve all heard the jokes: “Surplus French military rifles for sale. Never fired. Dropped once.”

[Old Student]

"All the brave French were killed off in WW1. Only the cowards were left to breed."

"Think of it as Evolution in Action." In this case, not a happy thing, either.

[bannie]

Everyone knows that the USA have an affair with France

:-) You forgot to add < Sarcasn > to your post!

[1903A3]

They do that to everybody
Another of their habits is to blame somebody else for every defeat they suffer be it in war or sport
They did that to us Belgian in 1940 instead of admitting that they had the s*** beaten out of them at sedan
Most of us Belgian would not piss on a frog if he was on fire

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

The French Army was no small force. Unfortunately, its strategy was flawed. The Germans won fairly easily not just because they did an end run around the Maginot Line (give me a break, they repeated the same strategy from WWI), but also Hans Guideron's combined arms strategy of using air, infantry and armor in coordination to break through lines and aggressive move into the rear. Finally, the Germans wanted to win a lot more than the French.

[kenavi]

When WWII came, the French were depleted from two centuries of war and Revolution: the Seven Years War with the British, the 1789 Revolution and its executions, Napoleon's Empire Building (taking on the German states who then coalesced behind Prussia, invading Russia, fighting guerilla resistance in Spain), the return of the monarchy, the Paris Commune of 1871, the return of Napoleon (nephew) and the Franco-Prussian Wars, and World War I, fought mainly on French soil. All the while maintaining a second-rate Empire to the British in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeastern Asia.

The population was depleted, and the populace was torn by a century of over-ideologizing.

That is the lesson of France for us, not the people, who vary as to friendliness towards the U.S.

[Schweinhund]

Ah, face it...France is your red-haired Affair, the kind of femme fatale you never marry but always fantasize about when you're in bed with your common-as-muck British wive ^^

[wildwood]

But we Americans seem to have short memories

one guy, 230 years ago.

that's the best they got.

no wonder they're shocked when testosterone shows up in non-frenchie athletes' tests.

[OKSooner]

"It's always entertaining when you have to go back more than two centuries to find honorable French soldiers."

Dreyfus was honorable. Of course, he ended up taking the rap for some other Frenchman's crime...

[OKSooner]

Maybe now'd be a good time for that little song that Glenn Beck sings: < Maurice Chevallier voice>

I love the French

I'd love to beat them with a wrench

[Paved Paradise]

Those were really great. Mark Twain was such a wit.

[bannie]

Nein...ich habe keine Frau.

UND ich mochte keine ....SLUT.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

http://www.twainquotes.com/quotesatoz.html

A lot of his quotes and newspaper statements are at above URL.

[RichInOC]

The question isn't whether we've forgotten that the French used to be brave, capable warriors. We haven't. The question is, have the French?

[Schweinhund]

Naja, als Großmama mag man Gänschen halt lieber als Schlampen :D

[Schweinhund]

I found this one:

The average American may not know who his grandfather was. But the American was, however, one degree better off than the average Frenchman who, as a rule, was in considerable doubt as to who his father was.

- quoted in "Stories of Mark Twain," C. D. Williard, Pacific Outlook, 4/30/1910

[JasonC]

By "respectable" I suppose you mean former SS torturing Vietnamese for sport, right? And then doing comically stupid things and losing and running away and handing the other half of the war over to us...

[JasonC]

230 years ago, when France had a legitimate king.

What have you done for me lately? Not a blessed thing...

[bannie]

:-o

Konnen Sie das auf English sagen, bitte?

Das ist fur mich zu schwer!

[Schweinhund]

Roughly translated:

Well, Grandmothers normally like 'little geese' better than 'sluts'.

By the way, I'm pleased to see that the rest of the world hasn't given up on this monster of a language yet ^^

[Schweinhund]

Actually, the other half of the war was left there for the taking.