This won't sit well with some

[Newt]

The extra flags are France, Germany, and Russia

 

 

Eleven thousand soldiers

lay beneath the dirt and stone,

all buried on a distant land

so far away from home.

 

For just a strip of dismal beach

they paid a hero's price,

to save a foreign nation

They all made the sacrifice.

 

And now the shores of Normandy

Are lined with blocks of white:

Americans who didn't turn

from someone else's plight.

 

Eleven thousand reasons

for the French to take our side,

but in the moment of our need,

they chose to run and hide.

 

Chirac said every war means loss,

perhaps for France that's true,

for they've lost every battle

since the days of Waterloo.

 

Without a soldier worth a damn

to be found within the region,

the French became the only land

to need a Foreign Legion.

 

You French all say we're arrogant.

Well hell, we've earned the right--

We saved your sorry nation

when you lacked the guts to fight.

 

But now you've made a big mistake,

and one that you'll regret;

you took sides with our enemies,

and that we won't forget.

 

It wasn't just our citizens

you spit on when you turned,

but every one of yours

who fell the day the towers burned.

 

You spit upon our soldiers,

on our pilots and Marines,

and now you'll get a little sense

of just what payback means.

 

So keep your Paris fashions

and your wine and your champagne,

and find some other market

that will buy your airplanes.

 

And try to find somebody else

to wear your French cologne,

for you're about to find out

what it means to stand alone.

 

You see, you need us far more

than we ever needed you.

America has better friends

who know how to be true.

 

I'd rather stand with warriors

who have the will and might,

than huddle in the dark

with those whose only flag is white.

 

I'll take the Brits, the Aussies,

the Israelis and the rest,

for when it comes to valor

we have seen that they're the best.

 

We'll count on one another

as we face a moment dire,

while you sit on the sideline

with a sign, "friendship for hire."

 

We'll win this war without you

and we'll total up the cost,

and take it from your foreign aid,

and then you'll feel the loss.

 

And when your nation starts to fall,

well Frenchie, you can spare us,

just call the Germans for a hand,

they know the way to Paris.

[Socksy Squirrel]

Germany cannot deploy troops overseas under the constitution that we gave them after WWII. There was a big war in Europe and the Pacific involving Germany and Japan in 1939-45 and the defeated powers were given constitutions that limited overseas deployments.

It is taught in schools over here in Europe, maybe you should tell your kids about it as well

[Socksy Squirrel]

And the French fought bravely against Nazi Germany while the US sold arms to the Fascist powers in the early part of the war.

 

[ 15. January 2005, 02:43 AM: Message edited by: Socksy Squirrel ]

[Socksy Squirrel]

Russia suffered 40 million dead in the war, more Russians died at Stalingrad than US citizens in the whole of the war.

[Ian FG]

Newt,

I have been to Normandy and the amount of museums, memorials and beautiful graveyards there dedicated to your fallen compatriots is outstanding, and this in a region that was devastated by the Allies. To suggest that the French people are ungrateful is simply not true. To suggest that Frenchmen are bad soldiers is ridiculous, they were the best in the world in the Napoleonic era, in the same way the Italians were in the Roman era, nearly any country can produce a good army with the right leadership, finance, training, equipment and motivation. Just because the French politicians did not support your country on this occasion does not make the French bad people or bad soldiers.

America was very late to enter WW1 and it is doubtful if it would ever have entered WW2 had not the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour.

I assume you copied this post from elsewhere and I have to say I find it simplistic, childish, gung-ho and hate-inducing and I am surprised someone as intelligent as you would post it, or were you bored and posted it to provoke a reaction?

Without French assistance you would have struggled to win the war of independence.

The French were overwhelmed by the Blitzkrieg in the same way the British were but they did not have an island to retreat to.

You should know this:

1,400,000 Frenchmen died in WW1.

45,000 Americans died in WW1.

 

And this is from someone who likes Americans

 

[ 15. January 2005, 09:41 AM: Message edited by: Gobio ]

[Davy Holt]

Tis Orca.... Unfortuantely Newt I need to agree with Gobio the general consensus of Europeans is that America only joined in WW11 because of Pearl Harbour and that if that had not happened they would not have entered at all. Although Gobio in fairness I dont think Newt wanted to provide a reaction I think it may be Patriotism that was the thought behind his post. I believe that like religion views on War are a very delicate and personal subject depending on which country you are from, what your background every country has it faults were War is concerned. There is still a lot of people in Britain believe that Tony Blair should not have aligned himself with George Bush over Iran and Iraq that he only did so to have favour with America, a lot of time i believe people are allies to othe countries to see "what they can get out of it " in the end. A lot of wars are due to nations poking there nose into other folks business, I agree that most are justified but equally some are not.

 

[ 15. January 2005, 09:46 AM: Message edited by: Davy Holt ]

[Jim Roper]

I thought the Commonwealth War Graves Commisssion were responsible for caring for war graves abroad.

http://www.cwgc.org

I wonder how many french people in their late 50s, have half American blood in their viens. There were 13 in the class in our school that could have been 'war babies'. Three of them were coloured, the only ones in town, so how many of the white kids in that class, were 'war babies'?.

 

In Memoriam

 

MAJOR V.C. REEVES

___________

 

“That Knightly Spirit Still Lives On”

___________

The sun beats down on rock and sand,

The lizards dart from stone to stone,

The heat-haze flickers far inland,

To where he lies - but not alone.

 

The desert of her space unfold

In one lone spot his broken frame ;

But all her vastness scarcely holds

The rising floodtide of his fame.

 

The laughter in those eyes is spent ;

That wisdom, early won, is gone ;

But in our memories, unbent,

That knightly spirit still lives on.

 

Major Reeves fell during the cavalry charge of a single English regiment (Queens Own Dorset Yeomenry) at Agagia in the Western Desert Feb 26th 1916.

 

KEEP IT UP, NEWT!

 

[ 15. January 2005, 10:05 AM: Message edited by: Jim Roper ]

[Jim Roper]

Why are so many national flags, Red, White and Blue? I'm sure there is a reason, Gaffer!

[Ian FG]

Rupert Brooke, The Soldier (1914)

 

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there's some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England's, breathing English air,

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

 

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

[chesters1]

quote:

---

I wonder how many french people in their late 50s

---

i wonder the same for brits its amazing what free stockings and chocolate does to peoples morals

perhaps war to americans is a way of converting untermench to be american ,bomb the country ,destroy commerce and basic amenities ,inprison all the males left ,bring the population to its knees then go in armed with gum and chocolate's and screw the population untill its half american

with the amount of yanks you fall over in the uk its probably working

mind you its a faulted theory ,low lifes from the afformentioned countries come over here and "convert" the gullible womenfolk back again not only ensuring their faulty genes get bettered by white stock due to doo gooders a nice house is available to do it

 

[ 15. January 2005, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]