Jiphy wrote:
EdelBrock wrote: Wow, touched a nerve I dare say? Its not like France has had a good record with wars throughout her history, not just WWII. History is history, and its not like France has been much of an ally since the US Revolutionary War (to which she wasn't an ally to the US but rather Ben Franklin)...
does this now make me elidgible for a vote?
Do you want to get my vote?
History is history as you say. My country is almost 1,000 years older than yours... It lays on the European Continent with many different terrestrian borders. Add to this two different seas (almost three if you take in account the Channel as one). The French have always been less numerous than their neighbors - living in smaller countries. You got these facts ?
For the military records, I think we learnt enough if a war is worth it or not. We "hosted" almost all the wars my country had been involved in.
Not an ally since the riot of British settlers in the thirteen colonies ?
We can be as grateful as you, if we dare. Reliable ally you said ? WWI started in 1914, you arrived in 1917. WWII started in 1939, you did nothing until 1941 - at least the British gave help until they left in Dunkirk. It took you almost two years to choose the good French government. Churchill, at least, recognised the good one by the Battle of Britain, 1940. The landing in Normandy, 1944? I have the greatest respect for the young Americans (and others) who died on these beaches, but it makes no doubt to me that the US landed in France only because my country was on the way to Germany and not for the sake of the French people. Land in Belgium or in the Netherlands or push Northward by Italy could have been other options, if we are so unreliable. Indochina war ? Lost. Vietnam war ? Lost also. You left there a greater chaos than we. Your country always does better, greater.
Do you think the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are won ? Maybe on a military scale, but what will remain in these countries after the withdrawal of Western armies ?
If history is history and that history keeps repeating, I have a little idea of what these countries are likely to become. And I have already a motto for this : "Blame it on the French".
jiphy, The original statement was meant purely in jest about "French spam" and the war record of France. It wasn't meant as some personal afront or to be read into further... it wasn't meant as a debating topic on cerberal levels or as a pissing match... my apologies if you took it that way.