Ya know, I'm still pissed about you being gone for so long, but you sure know how to get back in the good graces.

VP vs. the Cheese Monkeys. It's always a KO.

It's good to have you back! You're in fine form. I hope you you plan on sticking around for a little while.

And this would be part of the reason for their inclusion in the Axis of Weasels...

I think Scott has it just about right

You give the French too much credit. Contrary to what one WaPo headline suggested (and what too many people have subsequently accepted as fact), France hasn't come out and said they'd veto a UN resolution. They've only refused to rule it out.

Actually saying they would take a hard stand and exercise the veto (rather than abstain) and face the consequences implies a backbone that's completely lacking in the French national character.

Re the Charles de Gall (spelling intentional) aircraft carrier. With all that trouble they have had with it, I have to wonder: when did Renault get into the ship-building business?

Aw, those mean old Frenchies. They won't authorize Georgie's lovely little war. Boo-hoo. Well Georgie will show 'em. He's a gonna send American boys and girls to kill Iraqis despite the Norsk, Chinese, Russians, Germans, Turks, and the rest of the world. And all of you will sit on the sideline and cheer as the world revolts against the arrogant unilateralism of the America Cowboys.

mike, are you the sort of person who says 'Bush Junta' all the time?

Ok, so what's Germany's excuse?

Do you think for one nanosecond that France would take this stance w/o the Huns behind them? No, this is not our fault. This is coming from a vision they have of the EU where France and Germany co-rule. At least for awhile and then they'll be at each other's throats again.

Welcome back! Post pics of the new house yes?

You're absolutely right. It's our fault. We've pampered them for fifty years and now they're acting like spoiled brats.

Time to leave NATO.

BTW, welcome the fuck back.

Welcome Back
I was beginning to get concerned that your nesting duties were not going to let you get back in time to do the play-by-play for the upcoming war. I'm looking forward to your insights.

Best wishes to the wife

You dont suppose we did this on purpose do you? That we are prehaps looking for regime change in not just Iraq, Iran an North Korea by the end of this year, but posibly an end to the fraud called the UN and the purposelessness of Nato as well?

If the franco-German led Eu alliance wants to be a competetitor to the big bad US, I say let them. We can certainly use the 70,000 troops based in germany in other places.

I say we've got france and germany right where we want them. Exposed as frauds and on their way out.

And I second the 'welcome the fuck back " sentiment.

Mike, I'm not sure what you count as "the rest of the world", but the U.K., Austrailia, Poland, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, and others are on board.

But let's see, which countries are most vehemently against war with Iraq? France, Germany, Russia.

Now, which countries have the most oil deals with Saddam? France, Germany, Russia.

Hmmm. Could it be that their opposition is not as principled as it appears?

Perhaps when they make signs reading: "No war for Oil!", they're merely making a mistake of punctuation. What they mean is:

"No war.... For Oil!"

Bill always calls them "cheese-eating surrender monkeys". Wasn't that your eloquent way of labeling them?

Besides, our arrogance is well earned. Don't think so? Do something about it.

As an aside, Steven - as my fiance and I are working on purchasing a house right now, any advice or insight you can offer would be appreciated:)

Glad you're back.

declare france and germany to be open countries that we don't give a crap about.. specifically repudiate any defensive role in protecting their territory or their citizens anywhere...

there might be a few people who'd make a play for tahiti!!!

Collin May at innocentsabroad has some good stuff on this. Especially a pertinent link to an article in Le Figaro.

Welcome back!

And why did we keep checking back here, day after day, to see if VodkaPundit was back on the air?

France has been overindulging for over half a century now, and we’ve been the overly-helpful friends, holding their hair while they puke and making them Bloody Marys the next morning.

Damn, we missed you Stephen. Great to have you back!

Dude, perhaps you missed the broadcast, but do you think the whole thing might have happend according to plan?

Now. If they can coerce us to move NATO out of France, why can't we coerce them to move the UN out of New York and put it in Paris?

See what I mean?

Thanks for writing, Stephen.

Great post, 'cept for one thing.

That super model's got brains, from what I hear: Laetitia Casta left France and moved to Britain some time back, to avoid the crippling tax bite.

Here's a teaser (the most I could find on the web):

http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/update/u06-27-01/u06-27-01.shtml#6

French support in the American Revolution had as much to do with sticking it to England as any righteous crusade on behalf of the rights of man.

As for the wine, the Romans planted the vines (until many of them were replanted using stock from Missouri, but that's another story). The English (as played by the Normans and Angevins) had something to do with it as well.

France has given the world lots of culture, philosophy and art, but also lots and lots of bad culture, really bad philosophy, and even worse art as well.

The rot started long before WW I. I blame Rousseau, and Sartre, and Derrida, etc.

FWIW, Germany has probably contributed more than France in music, mathematics, and, perhaps, even philosophy.

Well, WTFB. Krystal's got a piece at Weekly Standard where he gives M. de Villepin a big fat smooch for clarifying the debate and removing that great big ol dewrag the Powellites been usin to cover their ass with, on both sides of Atlantic. Powell himself, appears to be seeing the light. Actually, kinda made me feel all warm & toasty towards the frogs.

It's the damaged gene pool. Since Admiral Degrasse saved our bacon at Yorktown, the Frogs have been bleeding like hell all over the planet. In WWI alone, was there not some huge percentage of French breeding stock killed? Well, wars have a way of finding the brave and killing them off - - leaving behind, to be kind, the less brave. These men produce sons who stay in the trench rather than charging the machine gun. C'est la guerre. Keep in mind WWII. After spending gobbs of French GDP on defense, the French lost their country in 30 days. My God, 30 days!

If the French are lucky, Vikings will land everywhere and carry off their women.

Alice--Actually, "cheese-eatin' surrender monkeys" was a moniker bestowed upon the French by Groundskeeper Willie.

Pissed at being gone so long? Bah! I don't pay his salary, he can do as he pleases, and I'll just be happy whenever he churns out the free ice cream cones.

Anywho, I have to agree with Stephen. I've said since long ago that America has been subsidising world stupidity. We are their hard working, responsible middle aged parents to their slacking, irresponsible mid 20s still living at home kids. And it's hard to fault us for doing so either. When looking at the world for countries to support you basically have to decide between bratty and self-centered yet democratic and modern countries (such as France and Germany) or the despotic and brutish regimes that make up the vast majority of the rest of the world. Though now we have come to the breaking point of our indulgence of their irresponsibility. It's time for some tough love.

Actually, I think the US has been treating some minority groups within the US the same way as we treated the French - held their hands, told them it wasn't their fault - and we should expect the same treatment from them as we've been getting from the French.

When I read this post, a thought came to me but I decided to read the comments to see if the same thought occurred to any of the previous commenters.

As it turns out, the thought did occur and the obviious connection was finally made by mreed,

Speciffically: "Resentment is a synonym for gratitude."

Which, many years ago, was coined to help explain the issue that mreed addresses.

The problem is probably also related to the oft said: "No good deed goes unpunished."

Maybe France is doing us a favor by trying to keep us out of a useless and dangerous colonial entanglement in a screwed-up country in the middle of the world's most screwed-up region. They warned us about Vietnam, too, remember? And we didn't listen -- that one really worked out great, didn't it?

This is what went wrong.

When you lose 1.8 million dead and missing in a war, you lose the heart and soul of a country. What would a comparable figure be for America in 1918? 50 million dead? You know how America reacted to 2,500 dead on 9/11, you know the lingering effects of 50,000 dead in Vietnam, can you imagine the American reaction to 50m dead?

I wouldn't want to be on the other end of that reaction.

Napoleon's Little Nephew needs to buy himself a historical almanac.

The population of France in 1914 was about 45 million. The US population at that time was a bit over 120 million.

France lost 1.8 million, the US lost 160,000, give or take.

That's a factor of 11, Little Buddy, not 2.5.

Two words, Steven: Grey Goose. They're not entirely useless. I would like to see the UN moved to Paris, but that hardly makes one or the other less useless...

*Ahem* Laetitia Casta is far from useless - why, if she wanted to just sit around my house in the nude (that's artistic-speak for butt-nekkid) that would be a mighty fine use. I can think of others but my wife probably wouldn't approve.

Wait, maybe I should ask.

Vietnam didnt work because the democrat-in-charge at the time decided to first, fight it ( wrong idea from the start) and fight it the wrong way in the second place. He chose in fact to fight it like the euros fight, our strategy was almost exactly like that of the french.

little dribs and drabs, holding territory with an army of conscripts. all the while hoping the little yellow fellas would come to the 'peace process',desparately searching for the 'one big battle' that never came .

The viets kicked are asses, and rightfully so, but you could hardly call them the winners, they have their independence and their country, but like all socialist societies, they are sinking into the dark ages. Dont be surpised if we show up signing a treaty some day soon and along with 99 year lease on cam rahn bay.

Their enemy is soon to be our enemy. They may not like us but they HATE the chinese. We will make a powerful team.

Dont expect it to happen again(our asses getting kicked that is). and by the way, even the viets werent stupid enough to attack us at home. If they had, well, you can imagine what 'might have been'.

Now wait a minute; are you arguing that this is yet another thing which is actually really America's fault?

Did you move to Berkeley or something? (heh)

Ok, so the numbers are off. The point remains the same. Using your figures, the comparable percentages losses for the US would have been more that 5 million men dead in 1918. Just 50,000 dead in Vietnam caused the rifts in the US psyche that we are now just getting over. 2500 dead on 9/11 have caused huge changes in oour America way of life. We no longer value freedom as much as we did, and now seem to moving toward valuing security. The two cannot co-exist. They are mutually exclusive.

But back to my original point. The loss of 1/25th of the entire population of young men in 1914-1918 caused France to become very wary of anything that could possibly cause that to happen again. She has become psychologically unstable. They now call it "post-traumatic stress syndrome." 1/25th of our current population of 275m people is 11 million currently. How would the effect of a loss of 11 million people (the same percentage today of US that France lost percentage-wise in 1914-1918) affect OUR national psyche? We would become far more weak-kneed and lilly-livered believe you me. That loss is incomprehensible to us. The French still remember it. That's why they are cowards and weasels.

Welcome back. Dude, I moved from San Diego to the Philly area and moved in faster than you.

Excellent writing. I gotta say that chick behind the statue is pure French beauty. Why can't they be sensible?

Napoleon Little Nephew:

Do you really think we would stand there with a stupid smile on our faces as we approached even 11,000? There would be hell to pay here - whatever administration was in charge would be toast - and 'over there' would be basking in the purple-blue aura of radioactivity.

Like the Israelis, our motto is now "Never Again".

And "If necessary, alone." (hat tip to Winston S. Churchill)

PS: You are The Eaglet? I thought someone had bumped you off.

Well, Napoleon's Little Nephew (just how small is that, anyway?), during the Civil War (the first really industrial war), we lost (depending on whose account you take) somewhere around 1 of 18 of all adult males (over the age of 14). Why didn't we go the way the french did?

Welcome back, Vodka Dude :-)

I have to quibble with you. That shitty little boat, the Chuck De Gall, is not and Aircraft Carrier. It is a boat that has a few planes on it that someone suckered the junior partner in the Axis of Weasels into believing was an Aircraft Carrier.

THIS is an Aircraft Carrier.

:-P

Aw, hell, the Navy doesn't allow deep linking. It was the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Find the pic with the troops in formation "Ready Now". (if this link doesn't work, here's the URL http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/027212.jpg).

I gots no argument there, Iron!

JorgXMcKie, that is a valid point. I will reconsider.

So why did the French help us in the Revolutionary War? Because they had been locked for decades in a struggle for dominance with the English. The revolt in North America offered the opportunity to weaken their historic rival -- boy, did it! -- but shortly afterward the French and English cooperated in insuring that the dangerous young republic was kept weak. Pershing's "Lafayette, we are here" was glitter thrown in the eyes of the American public, which had been wisely skeptical of of getting involved in a traditional war between Europe's colonial empires. Many have came close over the centuries, but no one ever beaten the cynical French in balance-of-power geostrategizing. Which is what they are up to today.

Re: # JorgX

We did.

Post Civil War America was a wacked out time to be alive. Utopian communes starving to death in the winter; Jim Crow lynchings; 16 hour days in mills with machines that could rip the hair off your head if you bent over to closely to reattach the threads.

America was an Isolationist Country for many years after. Wilson's campaign slogan was "He kept the country out of War."

People talking about the Anglosphere vs. EU do not remember that when the Titanic sank, we almost went to war with England for a 3rd time. Conspiracy theories were everywhere about how it had been deliberately scuttled to kill so many rich Americans at one time.

Countries, like people, have fortunes which rise and fall; sink into delusions - snap out of them; even die and have the jungle swallow every last trace that they ever existed.

I am less worried about why "it" happened in France, then how we can prevent it from happening in America. Which would mean ... studying why it happened in France ...

You don't think that, just maybe, France are completely and utterly in the right to oppose an unjust war? And 'Islamofascism'? Keep swallowing that propoganda...

To Mike about halfway up the page. No Mike I will not be on the sidelines. I'll be participating.

To Napoleon's Little Nephew:

You also need to remember that the French deaths didn't simply "happen." This was not at all like 9-11.

The French casualties in WWI were due, in no small part, to their own stupidity (and no, this is not a case of "root causes" or such drivel).

French casualties skyrocketed, to begin with, because of the "Battle of the Frontiers," and Plan XIII. Dozens of France's finest divisions, infantry and cavalry, advanced along the eastern frontier, in their uniforms of red pants and light-blue jackets [highly visible, but retained for the sake of "elan}, into the teeth of German machine guns. And advanced. And advanced. And died. And died. The casualties were so horrendous that the numbers were STILL classified as of the 1980s.

Then, there was Verdun, which the Germans pursued SPECIFICALLY to bleed the French Army white. Which it did ('course, it also bled the Germans, but not nearly as much).

Then, there was the massive Nivelle offensive, where French troops advanced bleating like sheep, because they believed that they were simply being thrown away. Which they were.

So, if France is suspicious of war after WWI, it should be reflected in suspicion of their OWN generals, and not of war in general. Incompetence, stupidity, outright ignoring of their own troops' suffering---any thought of French military competency probably should have died on the fields from Switzerland to the sea in 1914.

Oops. Make that Plan XVII, not Plan XIII.

Jack,
No. And the French don't care about right. They care only about therir oil contracts and the profits from selling Saddam the wherewithal to make nuclear bombs.

As for the Islamist terrorists they get called Islamofascists because their thinking seems so similar to that of Benny the Moose, including the glorification of violence. Of course, in their Judenhass they more closely resemble the Nazis, whom they admire immensely.

Islamist terrorism has been building to a crescendo for decades. It will be stopped. It must be stopped by force because there is no other way to stop it. It arises out of the dysfunctional nature of the Arab/Muslim political culture, which must be reformed if the world is to have peace from this millenarian scourge.

The Islamist terrorists wish to force a "War of Civilizations" on the world: Islam against everybody else, until the whole world is Muslim and living under Sharia. Remarks about propaganda and denigration of the US in these matters simply show you have not been paying attention, or are so complacent you think you can ignore such an eventuality.

Sorry, VP, but you're being too generous.

To expand on charles austin's comment, Germany's contributions to Western civilization -- the printing press and the Reformation, for starters -- are fundamental, and probably outstrip France's.

The French discovered royalty, and really screwed it up - ending in the excesses of Louis XIV.

Then they discovered liberty, and really screwed it up - ending in the excesses of the Revolution.

Then they discovered philosophy, and really screwed it up - ending in the excesses of postmodernism, deconstructionism and the like.

The only thing they haven't really screwed up is music.

Actually, it was the British, not the French, who mostly equipped the American doughboys in 1917-1918 when they came across.

While the US DoD placed orders for many heavy items such as planes, artillery pieces, etc., almost none of ithis materiel was available before the war ended.

In the meantime, the Americans flew Sopwith (British) planes etc etc.