Posted on 02/12/2003 1:01:06 PM PST by nickcarraway
Saying that phony "allies" have betrayed the United States, lawmakers are outraged that France, Germany and Belgium would let genocidal Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein attack Turkey.
The House International Relations Committee's top Democrat, Rep. Tom Lantos of California, said Tuesday he was "particularly disgusted by the blind intransigence and utter ingratitude" of Paris, Berlin and Brussels.
"If it were not for the heroic efforts of America's military, France, Germany and Belgium today would be Soviet socialist republics," Lantos noted. "The failure of these three states to honor their commitments is beneath contempt."
The committee's chairman, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., said, "America has fought distant wars to defend whole continents from a succession of aggressors, but the beneficiaries of the safety we have ensured often devote their energies to impeding our efforts to help others."
Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that if the United States is forced to bypass the alliance, "NATO will quickly atrophy."
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Congress could consider reducing financial support for NATO.
Sure, the greedy "Axis of Weasel" wants to prop up Saddam because of the billions invested in his abusive regime, but the New York Post's Steve Dunleavy today suggested an economic response: a boycott of all things French and German.
"Let's see how fast Jacques Chirac, the president of the whine and cheese club, and Gerhard Schroeder, the German leader whose people enjoy a united Berlin thanks to President Ronald Reagan, react to that one," Dunleavy wrote.
That is the syndrome that dares not speak its name.....
What a fortuitous choice of words you've made!!!
A sense of Fair Play is exactly what the French and Germans lack.
They lack a sense of fair play, not only in their attitude, but also in their actions.
It's their turn to carry the load a bit, and they run away.
I've finally realized that they are weasels.
No they didn't. My great-grandfather and grandfather, who fought in those wars, knew that and conveyed the information to their descendants.....
I guess you must believe in Reparations, too.
And if those two petulant child-states keep it up, I'm not opposed to us seizing them in the name of those who fell at Normandy, for starters.
Yes. By all means, let us conquer the petulant children for no other reason than a disagreement over how to handle Iraq. That'll teach them maturity.
Would we be talking about Scott Ritter syndrome?
Once more please, in English....
"That we saved them from tyranny so they could conduct their own affairs as they see fit?"
So, making and fulfilling treaty obligations doesn't fall under conducting their own affairs?
Had either of those men lost their lives in defense of the cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys or those other twerps, I'd not be here. The same holds true for my offspring. You're damn right I expect something.
I guess you must believe in Reparations, too.
No, I call it insurance. My son will not die for their lack of courage. Freedom has a price. If they don't have the fortitude to respect and preserve what they very nearly lost (twice) then I posit that they don't deserve it. And I daresay, with Germany's performance the last hundred years THEY more than anyone ought understand the necessity of defeating a tyrant before his tyranny takes hold. The French we'll excuse from that bit of it because I'm quite sure they'll surrender the point anyway
And if those two petulant child-states keep it up, I'm not opposed to us seizing them in the name of those who fell at Normandy, for starters.
Yes. By all means, let us conquer the petulant children for no other reason than a disagreement over how to handle Iraq. That'll teach them maturity.
It's a forward war of political prophylaxis: either you're with us, or you're with the terrorists.
The Bush Doctrine, cicero.
Live by it.
I wouldn't. That's a form of opression--slavery really. If it's right to save them it's right. The decision to plunge in shouldn't depend upon one's expectations of gratitude.
...What if I saved a whole continent from fascism? All Europe has done for 50 years is take, take, take...
In fact, America's post war boom was predicated upon the fact that Europe was in ruins and they had to buy from our companies to re-build. There's nothing wrong with that but let's not romanticise--OK?
The Europeans all take 2 month vacations, have free health care and complain about Americans while we provide an entire fleet to defend them and the world order to allow them to prosper. ...
This is one of the most interesting arguments I read around here. In fact, the United States is HEAVILY socialistic. We have incredibly high taxation rates to support massive bureaucracies. The difference between us and Europe is that Europeans, as you correctly pont out, DEMAND something in return for their taxes---health care, vacations, etc. The US invests in a military that is 14 times bigger than the rest of the world's militaries combined. The fault, dear ffusco, is not in our Europeans, but in ourselves, that we are underlings (apologies to Shakespear.)
Was it France or germany that won the cold war? No, they are the ungrateful recipients of American sacrifice.
Was the Cold War the right thing to do or not? Were there no American interests at work in the Cold War?
...Only New Europe has shown any gratitude, not in words, platitudes (like the French) or empty gestures (like the Germans)....
Really? That's news to me. What else has "new" Europe (which oddly enough seems to be governed by all the old commies from the Cold War) offered us besides platitudes?
"... What have they EVER doen to repay us?...
Everything that is good true and beautiful about our way of life is based upon Old European ideas. Have you ever calculated how much we owe them?
...Hey you blood thirsty savages: You could never repay the USA in a thousand years.....
Well, that's that then. They're blood thirsty savages who could NEVER repay us, but we will demand gratitude forever and ever, amen. Sounds like a recipe for mutual understading and cooperation if I ever heard one.
"... I will never travel to France or Germany as long as I live..."
It's none of my business, of course. But you will be denying yourself a wonderful pleasure.
Certainly. The men in my family knew that whatever else we fought WWI and WWII for--it was NOT to save France.
The salvation of France after WWII---in World War I we did great harm to the interests of continental Europe--was collateral salvation.....
Considering that all this is coming out of Brussels--the capital of "pink ballets"--you may just be right.....
Your misreading of history is complete.
Our country is enriched and blessed by your presence.
As the descendent of two veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic who fought to preserve the "Last Best Hope" in the Civil War, I hope you will show your eternal gratitude to them for their sacrifices by learning what it was they were fighting for.....
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