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Bush aides discuss 'punishment' for France - Page 2

post #51 of 63
4/27/03 at 3:38pm
It's a tad bizarre to hear all this, down here in Texas. The only derogatory comments I used to hear about the french were from my british friends, and it was usually an off-hand joke with no bitterness in it. (Think Eddie Izzard going "Well, they're just so....french...")
Now, I hear comments everywhere. Course, most of them are actually picking on "Freedom Fries" and not the french themselves.

I've only met one frenchman who fit the stereotype. Unfortunately, he fit it EXCEEDINGLY well. He was almost a cartoon. I was stuck on a project with him as his cameraman.
Every other person I've met from that country was nicer than most people I deal with in the States.
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post #52 of 63
4/27/03 at 5:22pm
It's bizarre period.
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post #53 of 63
4/28/03 at 12:37am
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Rath/Brendan:
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Dan Whitehead:
This reminds me, bizarrely, of that scene in Army of Darkness when Ash - full of obnoxious bravado, having realised he's the only guy around with a shotgun - scans the crowd for someone else to challenge him. Spotting the puniest guy he can, and purposefully ignoring anyone who might actually fight back, he waves the gun in his face and screams "Do you want some?"
I thought Ash got in that guy's face because he was the one who was whipping him while they treked back to the castle.
Yes.
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post #54 of 63
4/30/03 at 9:05am
Ash is a cowards. I took it that way, along with Dan.
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post #55 of 63
4/30/03 at 10:26am
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Eurytus:
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Grifter:


Screw the French...................
Would that be the same French who helped ensure you wouldn't remain a British colony?
I do not agree with the Anti-French sentiment. But I will point out that the France that helped the colonists is as dead as the Republican party that freed the slaves. Plus, after World War I and World War II we should be MORE than even.
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post #56 of 63
5/1/03 at 9:25pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Carl Cunningham®:
I do not agree with the Anti-French sentiment. But I will point out that the France that helped the colonists is as dead as the Republican party that freed the slaves. Plus, after World War I and World War II we should be MORE than even.
One could also easily say that the America who helped France during WWII is no longer as well. And regarding your second point, while I agree with you that we're more than even, there's no reason why US newspapers should hit us over the head time and again with WWII and we couldn't reply by using the Independence War as a counterpoint. In any case though, I think it's a disrespect to the memory of the people who fought to use their deaths as means of nationalistic propaganda.
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post #57 of 63
5/2/03 at 9:10am
Quote:
Blunt:
One could also easily say that the America who helped France during WWII is no longer as well. And regarding your second point, while I agree with you that we're more than even, there's no reason why US newspapers should hit us over the head time and again with WWII and we couldn't reply by using the Independence War as a counterpoint. In any case though, I think it's a disrespect to the memory of the people who fought to use their deaths as means of nationalistic propaganda.
I see your point, Blunt. But there is a simple reason why the WWII examples are more relevant: It's much more recent than the Revolutionary War. Plus... and this is a big one... many WWII veterans who helped liberate France are actually still alive, as well as many French people who were there when it happened.

To say it's an insult to these veterans to see any Anti-American sentiment coming from France would be a huge understatement.
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post #58 of 63
5/2/03 at 9:36am
My two cents (or centimes. Or Euros)

Firstly, I was always under the impression that France was liberated in WWII because it was the right thing to do, not as some sort of favour to be called in decades into the future.

Secondly, if Iraq had massed it's army and was preparing to invade the US, and France refused to help out, then the criticisms would have some merit. But to say that because of the events of 50 years past, France is somehow obligated to get behind America in being the aggressor in a conflict seems a bit skewed to me.

What really disturbs me is the way France have been singled out in all of this, opening the door for a flood of knee-jerk anti-French sentiment that is far in excess of what has actually happened.

It honestly makes me nervous about what would happen if Britain ever defied the US. Not that we ever will with Blair in charge, but...
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post #59 of 63
5/2/03 at 9:42am
Dan, I agree. Except I would point out that there is enough "knee-jerk" & Anti-whatever sentiment to go around. It's not at all exclusive to the U.S. There is some pure Anti-American sentiment out there as well.

And of course France was rid of the NAzi evil because it was the right thing to do. The "favor" was called in about 30 years earlier. wink
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post #60 of 63
5/2/03 at 9:45am
Quote:
Carl Cunningham®:
Dan, I agree. Except I would point out that there is enough "knee-jerk" & Anti-whatever sentiment to go around. It's not at all exclusive to the U.S. There is some pure Anti-American sentiment out there as well.
Absolutely. Maybe it's because I'm a eurobastard myself, but there's something in the vitriol directed at France, something in the willingness with which people at large seem to have accepted France as a villain in this sorry tale, that really disturbs me. I just have visions of an old James Whale mob waving pitchforks and torches everytime someone launches into another anti-France tirade.
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post #61 of 63
5/2/03 at 9:48am
Well, you can rest those fears. Most Americans are far too homophobic to form a James Whale mob.
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post #62 of 63
5/2/03 at 9:51am
Cunningham's on fire today!
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post #63 of 63
5/2/03 at 9:53am
Not really. I just "accidentally" put a liberal dose of Bailey's Irish Creme in my coffee this morning.
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