France - American Relations - Stories

[weaver]

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, 'whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.' He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?' Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'

You could have heard a pin drop.

[weaver]

There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?' A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck.. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'

You could have heard a pin drop.

[weaver]

When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush.

He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.

You could have heard a pin drop.

[weaver]

My favorite!

A group of Americans, retired teachers, recently went to France on a tour. Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. "You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. "Then you should know enough to have your passport ready." The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it." "Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France!" The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. "Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in '44 to help liberate this country, I couldn 't find any damn Frenchmen to show it to."

You could have heard a pin drop.

[Tracer]

Americans are the greatest people on earth .

[weaver]

Wow- Tracer - you are SO keen and right!

[White-Pinnacle]

Seriously though, what war has the French won? I can't think of any. . .

White Pinnacle

[Tracer]

The US always wins . They are the greatest country on earth . Americans are the greatest people on earth . War is the most important thing to Americans.

They could have restored New Orleans , but went to war instead.
They could have solved their Old age Security shortfall , but went to war instead.
They could have provided every American with health care but went to war instead .
They could have rebuilt their crumbling infrastructure but went to war instead.

Where are all those weapons of mass destruction ? Found any yet ?

4000 of your finest young men and women killed for a lie !!!!!

Americans have been fed crap for so long , they now think it tastes good !!!

Watch John Mcain get elected. He will make sure your in Iraq for a long , long time .

[Insomnia]

The french might not of have won a war...couldn't push germans back but they took you by the hand and walked you through your revolution from britain...

[Atrus]

"War is the most important thing to Americans." --- Don't mistake the poor judgment and corrupt ideology of one misguided administration for the American people.

"...they took you by the hand and walked you through your revolution from britain..." --- Yes, but not because they wanted to help us become a country, their motive was to defeat the British and acquire new lands. That's cool, it worked out okay for US.

[Titan]

As Atrus said, the French involvement was a means to exact revenge over Britain ( without the complete cost of launching a solo effort ) after being defeated in the Seven Years War, mostly because of the promise of commercial and diplomatic gains.

Up until the Battle of Saratoga, which we won on our own versus 9,000 of the British Army, they had simply offered strategic advice from some of their generals and economic aid. I am not downplaying their aid, I am sure we might not have completed our effort without it, I am just noting that they did not jump in wholeheartedly until we took that first big battle, giving them the belief that with their aid, the 13 colonies may be able to actually pull it off.

[Insomnia]

That's true. i totally agree with both atrus and titan but weaver just went on an all-out bash of the french when in my opinion both nations are inter-dependent in a way...

[White-Pinnacle]

Well, I do have to mention without the French fleet blocking the British fleet during the Battle of Yorktown, Cornwallis would have been able to evacuate his army.

Yes, everyone is interdependent in some way. Tracer does bring up a good point about the U.S. borrowing way beyond common sense. . . I read an article that U.S. owed China in excess of $300 billion and averaging about $1 billion a day in trade surplus in the Chinese favor. The only comfort that I can come up with is if the U.S. economy goes down the toilet, we'll drag everyone down too. LOL.

Personally, I don't care for the French government. There have been transfer of military technology to third parties by the French that makes my blood boil. But I guess the counter is the U.S. is the largest arms exporter in world.

I'm getting a bit worn down by all this . . . so have fun everyone!

White Pinnacle

[weaver]

Woah woah woah ..

First off - My post was mostly intended to be one sided critique of French attitudes. Does America have problems? Certainly. Are we haughty and arrogant? Absolutely. Do we fess up to a lot of these issues, I think so!

The 'view' from our side of the French in general is that of extreme attitude towards everyone not them. The German's have made a point, in their education program, to recognize what they have done wrong in WWII as a people/culture. The French simply ignore the fact that they were /not/ a country anymore.

As to - borrowing - too much money. We should not borrow, period. However, this being the real world where borrowed money means invested monies.. which means growth... and capital return on investments...

The US borrows less per capita/GDP then most other western countries that run a deficit. 300B to us is a LOT less then 300B to..oh.. Germany which is blowing that much or more to Russia in energy costs.

[seroone]

I have an antique french rifle from world war two.
Never fired.
Never used.
But dropped once.