Chirac Loves Freedom Fries?
There has been more than a little French Bashing going on during the past month. Time for a little balance. Here is the link to Molly Ivins latest
As our coaches used to say, "OK, people, settle down and listen up." We have been enjoying a lovely little spate of French-bashing here lately. Jonah Goldberg of The National Review, who admits that French-bashing is "shtick" -- as it is to many American comedians -- has popularized the phrase "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" to describe the French. It gets a lot less attractive than that. George Will saw fit to include in his latest Newsweek column this joke: "How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? No one knows, it's never been tried." That was certainly amusing. One million, four hundred thousand French soldiers were killed during World War I. As a result, there weren't many Frenchmen left to fight in World War II. Nevertheless, 100,000 French soldiers lost their lives trying to stop Hitler. On behalf of every one of those 100,000 men, I would like to thank Mr. Will for his clever joke. They were out-manned, out-gunned, out-generaled and, above all, out-tanked. They got slaughtered, but they stood and they fought. Ha-ha, how funny. In the few places where they had tanks, they held splendidly.and here an interview with Jacque Chirac presenting the French view on Iraq.
"France Is Not a Pacifist Country" The target of U.S. scorn, France's Jacques Chirac tells TIME's James Graff and Bruce Crumley of his objection to war and his love of American junk foodupdate: A warburger and some freedom fries please The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings changed the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries," a culinary rebuke of France, stemming from anger over the country's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq. This is Simply too Stupid.
Comments
Molly certainly came to the fore in that one.
And what about the defense of the Marne in WW1? Some thirty or so miles from Paris, and the taxi-cab convoys to ferry troops up to the fighting?
As Kim says, she gets really pissed when she's forced to defend the French, which she is, now. For all we mock the French, it would do folks well to remember that without them, we wouldn't exist.
Had we heeded the French lesson in Vietnam 58,000 Americans would still be alive. Those who are afraid, those that are unable to articulate that fear often resort to name calling. Looking at the names of those engaged in such talk is sobering.
Indeed it is. I can't believe we've come to these straits in such a short time.
Sits back and watchs America slowly piss the rest of the world off one by one
Indeed. We embrace others we substitute our vision and our values for theirs. We are making the world safe for capitalism "one country at a time."
A friend returning from France says some Frenchmen have taken to calling hamburgers "warburgers." Thank you, France.
Ah such sweet irony
ah, we dont need them. they want the Iraqi business contracts they signed. they also want to be paid for those contracts. to be sure, they used to be allies. not any more. read chirac's statements a bit more closely. you see they only want one thing.... business. one superpower, america. rest follow or be left behind. thats the way it is now. 6 million protest the war? how many watched the opening of a recently released movie? jeez, open your eyes.
The only thing I have in common with the French president is the first name. And the nationality. After living for 7 years in the US, I came back to France. Just in time, as it seems.
I am amazed but the amount of sarcasms and insults (hatred?) the French people –and not only the government- are the targets of in America right now. May be it is necessary to live in another country for a while to realize there is no such thing as A French or An American. I met a lot of very different Americans when I was there, thanks God.
So please believe there are a lot of very different Frenchmen as well. Some braves, some less brave, some rude, some friendly. Some arrogant and some genuinely interested by other cultures. Some eat cheese and some don’t.
Isn’t it unbelievable to have to remind people, on both side of the Atlantic, of such a basic and obvious truth ? Isn’t it the sign that something is going horribly wrong, something that reminds of the ambience in Europe before the wars, where there was The French and The German ?
I am as misinformed as most of us (French or Americans). I do not know if any of the positions adopted by George Bush or Jacques Chirac are inspired by morality, but I strongly suspect, from reading a bit about history in my spear time, they are not. But I know I do not know. I know I cannot have a serious opinion about this war. So how could I have so little pride, so little respect for my own person to propagate insults and sarcasms about a hypothetic American, or a mythical French?
I have spent enough on both side to know that on both side, there are people.
And I have spent enough time in life to know that no people is generally better that another.
This I know.
And because for the rest, I don’t, I decide to take a chance and be in favor peace. Since I am necessarily mistaken, that’s the right mistake.
For what it's worth.
A cheese-eating surrender monkey.
I for one appreciate the French stand on the war. Whether they are doing it for all the right reasons is less important to me than the fact that what they are doing is in my opinion right. Regardless of whether you think going to war is a good idea or a bad one, it is important to make the decision multi-laterally.