Not a person - an American unit

TonyE · Subject: Re: Not a person - an American unit Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:56 pm

Here's a few one liners I got in an email from Canada.

Going to war without the French is like going hunting without your accordian. -Gen Norman Schwarzkopf

I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me,- Gen Patton

The French are always there when they need us, forgot who said that.

For sale,French Army Rifle,never used, dropped once

dandc · Subject: Re: Not a person - an American unit Mon Oct 12, 2009 12:22 pm

de-gaulle,now there was one brave french man,spent the war years in england,and would not let the allies enter paris unless he headed the parade,dave.

Chemist · Subject: Re: Not a person - an American unit Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:30 pm

Just after the first Gulf war I was at a meeting talking POL matters with a French Army Colonel. After a few seconds something dawned on me, the French had played a considerable fighting role in that war!

Why did I not know about it? Simply, the UK press had hardly mentioned it.

The same goes for the Afghanistan business. The Brits get the big mention, then the Yanks ,but how often do we hear about the Canadians, Dutch, Germans etc. etc?

This is the first "NATO" operation, but do the UK press acknowledge this?

Don;t get me wrong,I am still British, but sometimes I despair of the British media and the British attitude to "Johnny Foreigner"

Stephen Lock · Subject: Re: Not a person - an American unit Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:14 pm

dandc wrote:

de-gaulle,now there was one brave french man,spent the war years in england,and would not let the allies enter paris unless he headed the parade,dave.

ehehehehe....I remember a wonderful quote from Winston Churchill (and I paraphrase here) "We all have our crosses to bear; mine is the Cross of Lorraine." Referring to DeGaulle hailing from Lorraine.

Of course, Canadians will recall the arrogance of the man in 1967 (?) when he came to Canada, specifically to Montreal, for Expo '67. At the time, Quebec Separatists were making a lot of noise about seceding from Confederation (the term used here to describe the political make-up of autonomous provinces (10) and at the time two territories within a federal framework; Ottawa (federal) has certain powers and authority and the provincial legislatures have certain powers and authority .. or in the case of Quebec, their National Assembly).

In a speech that has gone done in infamy he proclaimed "Vive la Quebec. Vive la Quebec libre!" A rallying cry for the separatists. Trudeau, who was Prime Minister, and a Francophone nearly had a conniption fit. Various MPs did....it created quite a furor. Trudeau's approach to The Quebec issue, like many of our PMs, was often conciliatory and accomodationist, but he did invoke the War Measures Act when the Front de Liberation de Quebec (The FLQ) kidnapped a British diplomat and a few others and killed the diplomat, stuffing him the trunk of a car. The jury is still out on whether he was right to invoke the Act or not (in effect, declared Marshal Law and sent in the Army with wide reaching security powers).

And they say Canadian history is boring!!! study

ciphers · Subject: Re: Not a person - an American unit Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:22 am

Cross was the British Diplomat and he was released, it was LaPorte a Canadian politician who was assassinated ... could be wrong, after all I'm just a bloody immigrant here ..

Len (Ciphers)