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Originally Posted by Skybird
One week or ten days ago, there was a very interesting docu about French units in afghanistan. actually, they are being held in high esteem by the americans and are beside the British the preferred choice of US commanders to line up with in joint operations. both sides - normal grunts, no PC officers - said that they cooperate very well and trust each other's reliability and efficiency. Also, in 91 it were French light recce units taking the lead in the outer west due to their immense mobility. and in the "war in terror" (what a braindead whrase...) , the french counterterrorism intelligence proved to be inevitable for many American successes, and has been confirmed many times to be at last as tough as the american intel operations. France is a heavyweight, in these regards - no matter who currently are presidents in the US and France. retorics may have been friendly or hostile, but the intel cooperation always was very tight and substantial.
If you have a problem with french policies, adress their politicians, leave the soldiers out of it. They obey politician's orders, like American soldiers do. Always mocking about French army is as if I would mock about the US army grunt for the mistakes made by Georgie. And I never did that!
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<sigh> Come on man. It was a jab at Germany, not France. France has a martial tradition dating back to the times when they were "Gauls" and can hardly be considered a "weak" nation by anyone who isn't blinded by American patriotism. If America, with its' foreign policy at the time, had been where France was in WW2, we wouldn't have lasted any longer. Neither would Britain.
I know that poking fun at the Germany's Nazi regime (well, even mentioning it,really, is not popular in Germany) but it is popular elsewhere where we seek to make fun of Germans for their seemingly unparalleled efficiency and work ethic. The ridiculously rapid recovery of Germany from WW1, especially given the brutal Versailles treaty, and WW2, given that part of your country and half of your once-and present capital of Berlin were occupied by the Soviets, does make other people jealous. If we can't make fun of you for failures, we make fun of you for succeses.
Do you get the joke now?