France - When was the last time this country showed a spine?

shonuff. wrote:

they don't have a spine and that, my friend, is why we now have FREEDOM FRIES!!

Wouldn't it be nice if the Democrats or Colin Powell had the balls to tell Bush to shove it?

mehdi baala, great guy

The last time the French showed some spine I guess, was the early months of World War One.

It had been drummed into their infantry, after their defeat by the Germans in 1870, that only by showing aggression and fighting spirit could they prevail.

It meant they were to attack the enemy on every occasion, whatever the circumstances.

So it was, in the early months of World War One, the French infantry, led by their officers, usually charged the enemy, (Germans) despite the fact that with a very much larger allocation of machine guns and very much improved artillery back-up, the advantage had swung to the those defending.

Their plight wasn’t helped much either by the fact that, unbelievably, they were still wearing their old uniforms of blue jackets and red trousers!

The French army lost 1,400,00 dead in that war and 4 million wounded, (the equivalent of the US now fighting a war with the loss of over 10 million dead) - and a quarter of those deaths occurred in those first couple of months - when they did show some spine - too much spine for their own good I venture.

It’s hardly a surprise, they were less than enthusiastic going through the same angst a generation later in 39.

Hell, America went pacifist for years after losing, what, 58,000? in Vietnam

Incidentally, total US losses in all theatres of conflict during World War Two was 416,000.

Sheriff Buford T. Pusser wrote:

I am pilot idiot

What kind of pilot? One of the ones who never faces an enemy bullet and bombs friendly troops, one who never faces a bullet and bombs friendly civilians, or one of the ones who never faces an enemy bullet and delivers supplies to real soldiers like some sort of glorified UPS deliveryman?

Bloody computer, missed a nought out on French dead - 1,400,000.

Before someone jumps in.

When the French underground fought with the allies againstthe Nazis. More importantly, the French supplied ninety percent of the gunpowder to the American colonists, and a big French naval fleet to blockade the British at Yorktown, where the British surrendered, and America got its independence. Know some history first.

R U kidding.

The French citizens stand up every single time their government tries to take something away from them.

We Americans accept nearly everything our government and big business does to us. We should have 1/10th the heart the French do.

Stop being such a dupe, buying into that right wing nonsense