French Claim US Campaign Is Failing

Newsday ^ | 11/4/01

[11th Earl of Mar]

PARIS (Reuters) - Nearly half the French public believes the four-week-old U.S. military action in Afghanistan is failing, a poll released Sunday showed.

The survey by pollsters Ipsos for the Journal du Dimanche weekly showed 47 percent thought the campaign was failing, with just 17 percent confident of success.

The remainder of the 969-head sample, interviewed on November 2, gave no response or said the outlook was unclear. No definition for what constituted success or failure was given.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Political Science

Randy Newman

No one likes us-I don't know why
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let's drop the big one and see what happens

We give them money-but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful and they're hateful
They don't respect us-so let's surprise them
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them

Asia's crowded and Europe's too old
Africa is far too hot
And Canada's too cold
And South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one
There'll be no one left to blame us

We'll save Australia
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin', too

Boom goes London and boom Paree
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We'll set everybody free
You'll wear a Japanese kimono
And there'll be Italian shoes for me

They all hate us anyhow
So let's drop the big one now
Let's drop the big one now

[CommiesOut]

are we prepared in a mindset to handle the ugliness

So far so good:

Newsweek Poll: Worries At Home and Abroad

Nov. 3 — Americans are evenly split (46 percent to 46 percent) on whether or not they think President George W. Bush’s administration has a well-thought-out plan for fighting anthrax and other terrorist threats at home, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. In last week’s survey, the White House’s plan had a 48-43 positive edge. And the number of Americans who think the U.S. military plan overseas is well conceived continues to slip slightly, the poll shows, down to 72 percent from 75 percent one week ago and 78 percent two weeks ago.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/652240.asp

[GVnana]

I could make a strong argument that the poster is trying to provoke a "confrontation."

Maybe. I'm not.

[1rudeboy]

My understanding is that most of the grape varieties in France are Californian in origin, due to some sort of a root-fungus that nearly wiped-out the entire domestic French wine industry. Hey, let's bash the French again!

I am reminded of Sept. 11th's immediate aftermath, when a comment by some minor European socialist and duly reported by the lap-dog press, would provoke waves of anti-European hysteria. Naturally, when the truth came out (Italy and Germany come to mind), those hysterics were nowhere to be found.

[newwahoo]

""Ah, cher--you forget the uniquely American FRENCH culture, Louisiana Cajuns. And they are also better cooks than the continental French, to boot!"

A very good point given this thread. I've only been down to Louisiana once, but I fell in love with New Orleans. There are a couple of good Cajun restaurants here in NYC (another gret part of living here!) that I visit every now and then. Our American "culture" is just something the French, and their Francophile friends in America, will never understand. They can never get past the thought of McDonald's to see how special we really are.

Cajun culture- Unique AND American as can be at the same time.

[ScreamingFist]

"I am a Dutchman living in Britain"

I spent a year or so at the The Hague, I considered it the best times of my life. I hope to make it back to Holland some day, no place in Europe I would rather be. And welcome to FR.

[avg_freeper]

This is utter stupidity.

When was the last time France invaded a country and brought its leaders to their knees in 28 days.

The lack of immediate success is not a failure.

Was it a failure because the war was not over two weeks ago? Three weeks ago?

Did they expect something magical to of happened causing the war to be over in five minutes.

Yes we could of eliminated this whole taliban regime in 2-3 days of blind nuclear fury. The innocent
Joe and Jane sand dwellers that live their do not deserve that.

We could of also flew in thousands of waves of ground troops from the beginning. Yea, the first couple
thousand would of been chewed up pretty awful but that would of ended it quick too.

I'm no military expert by any means so the following is derived purely from advanced anal extraction:

1.) These things take time.

One battle tactic is preceded by a different battle tactic
Although not obviously seen, one type of attack may seem futile but is preparing the way for an easier
implementation of the next type of attack

Air bombardment -> Spec Ops -> Ground troops,... etc.

2). The attacks are being paced to align with other non military actions.

Countries like Turkey are coming into the fold to help. Exiled afghan leaders are being brought in to make
alliances with rebellious factions. Shaky governments like Pakistan are being shored up.

Many of these tasks are occurring at a pace we have no control over and the military actions must be
phased properly to be in alignment with them.

3). There are a lot of cobwebs to be cleaned out of the armed services.

Military commanders are acting with prudence to figure out who can be counted on and who was just
bumped up by clintonesque forces.

This is true even more on the intel side. I imagine there are many military commanders that are PO'd
that the means they counted on to get info might have been shinola for quite some time.

These are the kind of things you only learn when you have to, during war. I bet there is a whole lot of
learnin' going on.

[paul51]

Who cares?

[CWOJackson]

I believe the comment you are thinking about was made by a party official who declared the attacks as not an act of war.

[AmishDude]

Americans are evenly split (46 percent to 46 percent) on whether or not they think President George W. Bush’s administration has a well-thought-out plan for fighting anthrax and other terrorist threats at home, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll.

Gee, I wonder what the American people think about whether George W. Bush's administration has well-thought-out plan to stop mean people and make junior high students do their homework? What are we supposed to do?!? Leave it to Newsweek to find a poll question to get people to foment discontent.

[Moto]

I'll tell ya where they would be...we'd be calling them refugees and they'd be complaining about the fact that no came to their rescue. I've been to France, it sucked. The people sucked. The food is better in my home town of New Orleans as mentioned above. The architecture is beautiful and quaint, but the attitudes of the people living there spoil it.
Yes, there are exceptions so don't give me this "I have a French friend and..." bullshit anyone. The fact is on the whole the people are so rude and arrogant it makes one wonder how arrogant ever got applied to Americans in the first place. They are the living embodiment of the term.
To makes matters worse...they stink and half the women look like they have Buckwheat in a headlock. I'll never go back.

[Texbob]

Yeah, the French have not won a war in modern History, they should know how to tell us how to win.

[1rudeboy]

There were many occasions. What disturbed me the most was our willingness to set-aside our natural scepticism concerning comments by politicians and the media. Was the person speaking for the government? Was he quoted out of context? Was something missed in the translation? Was the comment designed for consumption by his own, limited constituency?

You are seeing the same sort of thing on this thread. Some unknown organization conducts a poll of unknown parameters, and it is duly picked-up by our media. 47% of the respondents "think" the US action is "failing."

Well, the action is ongoing, is it not? [rhetorical question]

Would that make it a "failure" until now? Who knows what these respondents were asked?

[New Horizon]

The French can kiss my derriere. We don't need them, and cannot trust their offerings of support anyway. Bunch of non-committal wimps.

Go make a crepe and shut up and hide and wait to see what happens...the only things you're good at. I wish I could somehow suck the French blood from my body...thankfully there's not much.

I'm an American. If you're not with us, you're against us.

[Polybius]

Or, it could simply be a rational reaction to the pop culture America has flooded the planet with since emerging from WWII as the only one left standing.

"Pop" culture, meaning "popular" culture, is only the lowest common denominator of what people throughout the world will watch.

It is no more "American" than ABBA was "Swedish".

Once upon a time, Hollywood made quality movies with true American themes such as "Gone With the Wind". Unfortunately, such movies do not bring in very much money outside of the USA. So, Hollywood has dumbed down it's product to be able to sell to a worldwide market.

A friend of mine that had sailed around the world told me how, in a remote South Pacific island, the natives who could not speak English were happily watching a Rambo movie projected on a bed sheet hung outdoors in the village. Such people would not sit through 5 minutes of "Gone With the Wind" or "Citizen Kane" but they gladly sat through 1 1/2 hours of mind candy to watch cars, planes and trains being blown up.

The same can be said for the other foreigners from France to China who will flock to the movie theatres to watch the same "Pop" culture trash.

Maybe America should be the one complaining that the rest of the world is responsible for the "Pop" culture trash that Hollywood now puts out to cater to the foreign world market.

Y, si, yo he viajado a Francia. Mientras que estaba en Paris, una sen~ora Francesa me explico que el idioma Frances era "el refinamiento" del Latin mientras que el idioma Castellano era "la corrupcion" del Latin. Me parece que la actitud de superioridad que tienen los Franceses no la tienen solamente con los Americanos.

[horsewhispersc]

You brought a smile to my face, but it's only been, hardly a month my friend. Thanks for your encouragement. You are right of course for the moment.....Keep Safe

[Hillary 666]

The opinion of an American failure is not the professional opinion of people who know how to fight a war, it's a bunch of worthless tabloid-level garbage that is to be expected from the French. The French are worthless pukes that are so weak that they have to have other countries fight their wars for them.

[billva]

The French are pretty typically out of step with us. Anyone, including posters here, who at this point want a victory apparently think it's ok to put our ground forces in harms way instead of continuing to soften the enemy just for the sake of being able to claim a quick victory. I wonder how one of these posters would feel if they were there sitting on ready to invade and knew they might lose their life just to satisfy someones desire to do it faster?

[niteowl77]

Equating the American yearning for freedom with France's yearning to get even is bad form. Feel free to translate the preceeding into any of those languages in which you are so adept.

Ed

[Mr. Toobeley]

Well, in an attempt at tastefulness and rapprochment, let me say that I find French women much more fun to be around than American women. Moreover, I don't think French men actually deserve them. Therefore, I propose an exchange: I would like to inflic-- . . . that is, GIVE French men as many of our slovenly, overweight, loud-mouth American women as possible--to improve their boullabaisse. In return, we should receive an equal number of trimmer, more delicate, more intelligent French women--for our great big melting pot. Both countries would be better for it.