Free Republic

Carroll: Dean's thirst for world's approval is childishDecember 13, 2003Howard Dean believes a president should be judged by the worldwide popularity of his policies. At least that is what he suggested to Fox News' Chris Wallace the other day, after Wallace asked Dean why he'd said Bush "doesn't understand what it takes to defend this country, that you have to have high moral purpose."Wallace apparently thought he could cajole Dean into admitting the president did indeed have a moral purpose "in trying to set up democracy in the Middle East," even if the president's policies were all wrong. But the...

December 4, 2003: France is considering quietly retiring their new nuclear powered aircraft carrier and joining with Britain to buy a new carrier of British design. Actually, the French had planned to built a second nuclear powered carrier, but they are having so many problems with the first one that they are quite reluctant about building another one. Britain is building two 50,000 ton conventionally powered carriers, at a cost of $2.5 billion each. France would order a third of this class, and bring down the cost of all three a bit. The new French nuclear carrier "Charles de Gaulle"...

THE PROPELLERS FELL OFF THE ONLY OTHER CARRIER THEY HAVE WHEN THEY LAUNCHED IT! This is NOT a parody or a spoof---this is TRUE. This French aircraft carrier broke its port propeller on its first long-distance trials. The French Navy announced that a blade on one of the aircraft carrier's two propellers broke off when the 40,000-ton vessel was making its way from Guadeloupe in the French West Indies to the US naval base at Norfolk, Virginia at 25kts. The break occurred in the vessel's port propeller, which weighs 19 tons and measures 5.8m in diameter. Divers were unable to...

PARIS, Feb 25, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- France's only aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle returned to the southern port of Toulon on Tuesday after three weeks of exercises in the eastern Mediterranean. The ship was to remain in dock for around a week before leaving for new exercises, a navy spokesman said. During its three-week exercises in the Mediterranean starting from Feb. 4, Charles-de-Gaulle had joint training with the American aircraft carrier Harry Truman, deployed ahead of a possible US-led strike on Baghdad. On Feb. 17, the French armies confirmed that Charles-de-Gaulle will not head for the Gulf region...