And, then, There's the French!

(This Post first ran January 23rd, 2005)





What is all the noise about our ally, France? Since when has France been an ally of the US? I mean, when… exactly?

Remember the “French and Indian War”? They durn near killed our First President during that war. We hadn’t even gone to war with the mother country yet and there we were fighting France. Oh sure, they showed up at Yorktown, in the nick of time, but that was because we were fighting, perhaps, their oldest enemy, Great Britain.

The French are self-delusional. Always have been. They really believe they are a “challenger” to the US for leadership of the world. They actually believe that. Over in the “old world”, they are really making a grand push to head-up the “United States of Europe”, if they ever get that one up and running. If they manage that, they’ll screw it up as they have so many other grand endeavors they conned themselves into.

Many of us, on this side of the pond, have had our fill of pulling their chestnuts from the fire over and over again. The cost is simply too high. Not to mention it is a thankless job.

Somebody once said: “Next time there's a war in Europe; the loser has to keep France.” I agree. Next time, let the Germans keep Paris!

There’s an old joke making the rounds again. It’s something like this: “How many Frenchman does it take to drive the Germans out of Paris?” The answer: “Nobody knows. It’s never been tried!”

I read recently that France’s best general was a foreigner and her best soldier was a teen-age girl! Well………

Even Napoleon Bonaparte himself said: "The French complain of everything, and always."

Perhaps Mark Twain put the stopper in the bottle with his remarks on France. He said: "France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks, it is a fine country. France has usually been governed by prostitutes."

And finally, my personal favorite, from General George Patton: "I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me."

So, next time Paris gets it’s back up, remember this remark by US Senator John McCain of Arizona: "You know, the French remind me a little bit of an aging actress of the 1940s who was still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it."
So, you see, it’s just a tad difficult to be serious about France.

“Longstreet”