On 9/1/13 11:48 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 01 Sep 2013 11:28:19 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

On 9/1/13 11:03 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 1 Sep 2013 10:40:49 -0400, iBoaterer wrote:


Let me guess, you two know more than this guy, right?

http://tinyurl.com/qf77s3q

One paragraph:

Those comments really get on my nerves. And they?re flat out wrong. I
served with a few Legionnaires and a lot of regular French troops.
Whatever the French public?s or government?s politics are, their
soldiers are brave, well-trained, in fantastic shape and aggressive.
Describing those men as cowards is an absolutely unfair
characterization.

SIX WEEKS

That is how long it took the Germans to take France

When the US allowed the French army to march back into Paris the
French had to scramble to find white faces because most of the "Free
French" army was actually Easy Africans.
It ended up being over half African.

Are there some brave French men? I'm sure there are but as a national
policy, not so much.

From the Wiki

"n February 2012, after an Afghan soldier shot and killed four French
soldiers in eastern Afghanistan, French president Nicolas Sarkozy
threatened to suspend French operations in Afghanistan.[4] The newly
elected president Francois Hollande, announced in June 2012 that he
would be withdrawing 2,000 of France's 3,400 troops in Afghanistan,
leaving 1,400 for training and logistics.[5] In November 2012,
France's combat troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, leaving just
the logistical contingent in the country. [6]"


Instead of your second-hand whining about the French, perhaps you and
the other military heroes here can tell us about your heroic exploits
under enemy fire.

All of my "enemy fire" was on the streets of DC but I did volunteer to
go to Vietnam twice in 1965. It wasn't my choice that they said no.

I would think you should applaud my choice to try to save lives in the
USCG but, alas hey thought bouncing around in the North Atlantic
looking for Russian subs was more important.
It was my fault for doing too well on the tests I guess.


The point is, you are whining second hand about the bravery of soldiers
and the sort of military action you never saw. There's been a long meme
about the lack of bravery of French soldiers, and most of it is based
upon circumstances that bear little resemblance to reality. Through
toughness and brutality, the French military held on to several of its
"colonies" long after most other nations would have packed up and left.

I don't fault the French for pulling out of Afghanistan. Military
adventurism there is folly.