Bill,
I totally agree with you.There are no permanent friendships between
nations. Only relationships of expediency for the moment, which are ever
changing. At this time, France is definitely not our friend, if they
ever were.
TheFrench help of America during our revolutionary war was only promoted
due to the extreme animosity between England & France which was started
when the French William the Conqueror took control of England at the
Battle of Hastings in 1066. The later help of America during our
revolutionary war was motivated by France's desire to further weaken
England. The French are never anybodys long time friends, only as long
as they imagine some personal gain from the alliance. Due to our
superior military power they don't like to be left out of the important
decisions that "they, the elite of world society" think they should be
involved in. Much the same thinking applies in Germany.
Bob,
You appear to be of the elitest persuasion. The French are not elite,
only self disillusioned & annoyingly noisly rude & ready to take any
opportunity to further their national goals. Treacherous, comes to mind.
Probably due to their frustrtion of lack of any real power in world
affairs. You can take credit, as can I, for adding fuel to this off
topic discussion which I hope ends soon.
One of the non-elite,
Dave Russell
Bill Lawrence wrote:
> What is interesting to me is how long it has taken us to realize how the
> French have always viewed this country, as a culturally inferior
> backwater not to be allowed the privilege of self actualization (or
> defense) without the permission of our betters. We naively assume that
> they are our "friends", but nations don't have friends.
>
> We are being asked to subject our national interest to their scrutiny
> and request their assistance and advice on matters of self defense and
> international affairs. May I ask what is their record of achievement in
> those areas? From my viewpoint it is quite unimpressive from about 1789
> on. The UN? same story...
>
> As for "W's war" it's my damned war too because if we are to gutless to
> fight it our grandchildren will be forced to from a much less
> advantageous position.
>
> It's your right to dissent, but don't kid yourself that you are a
> patriot just because you have the "courage" to tell lies about a better
> man than you can be.
>
> Oh yeah, and Bugatti was an Italian.
>
> Sorry to be so off topic, but please note that I didn't start it.
>
> Bill Lawrence
>
>
>
> On Jul 24, 2004, at 10:27 AM, Bob Denton wrote:
>
>> It's increasingly interesting to see our changing reactions to the
>> French. They out style us, out class us, and are way more artistic, on
>> the whole. Their cars, in the hayday before WWII, were far more
>> refined than ours. But now that they are against W's war people seem
>> to think the French are awful at everything. Not only the Delage, but
>> the Delahaye, the Bugatti, the racing Panhards and even the Renault.
>> The "lowly" Renault is giving Ferrari fits in F1. Even the Citroen DS
>> 19 was way ahead of anything we built in 1960. Refinement ain't
>> girlie, guys.
>>
>> Bob Denton
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