France shows her weakness once again

[Maastricht]

France will increase its deployment to 2.000 soldiers ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/24/AR2006082401106.html

[Maastricht]

France will increase its deployment to 2.000 soldiers ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/24/AR2006082401106.html

It's about time.  Still, I think Italy should take over the operation since they are showing the initiative.  France is dragging their feet.

Well, I'm afflicted ... but before this a country whose initial ones are U, S and A provided weapons to Israel and encouraged the continuation of their offensive against Lebanon, so you might understand that France is asking itself questions about the legitimacy of USA's position...
Moreover, many French and European people find quite ... shocking, or at least disturbing, that a part of USA's politicians and public opinion is complaining about slowness (2 unhappy weeks!).
After all, aren't France and EU just trying to repair the damages caused by an unclear war nearly officially supported by the USA ? It's a real pleasure,  to hear Bush saying he's deceived that France hasn't send enough boys to clean up USA's mess ...

[Maastricht]

Are you kidding?  The conflict in the Middle East is the United States's fault?  It is certainly not the United States's fault, nor Israel's fault, nor Lebanon's fault, nor Hezbollah's fault, nor Iran's fault, nor anyone else's fault.  It is the offspring of deep religious tension caused by centuries of misunderstanding, scores of power-hungry religious officials, legions of misguided followers, and several unfortunate mistakes.  To try to pin the conflict on one country, let alone one not even in the region, is severely underestimating the true complexity of the Middle Eastern situation.

I didn't said the whole thing since 1947, I was just speaking of 2006's conflict... Both Israel and Hezbollah can be blamed for this, but I think it should be the same for USA ... Everybody knows Israel do follow Bush's orders : hasn't he unofficially authorized Israel to continue the war for three more weeks in mid-july ? Bush had the power to stop Tsahal's invasion. Of course Hezbollah would still have been a big problem if war ceased in mid july. But for the same result we had one useless month of war... Bush could have stop it.

First, welcome to the forum.

Well, thanks, but just check my profile : Date Registered:  September 18, 2004, 08:38:30 pm

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God, I wish my whole life should be that clear and simple ...

I don't think of having deferred on Israel the whole responsibility for this conflict, far from there. I just allow myself to express my surprise about  the hypocrisy of the current foreign policy of the USA towards Lebanon.

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Sociopaths, OK But they do not hate the USA. And it's the same mistake people commit for 99% of French People. What we do not like is puritanism, ultra neo-conservatism. This way of thinking according to which God and the fatherland is what one must live for. Unfortunately, this description corresponds to Bush.

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American humour ?

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Don't worry about it, he's rotting somewhere in Hotel Matignon, we havn't seen him on TV for about two months. This guy is trying to make people forget himslef, even if he's still PM .

[Maastricht]

The French have never quite shaken off Dien Bien Phu Syndrome

Dave

Well, yes ... But the main cause of this trauma are the 2,240,000 lifes (soldiers + civilians) lost in less than 50 years during the 2WW and Algerie+Indochine Wars. For a very long time, there wasn't in the whole country a family where nobody has been wounded or killed in a war. I've recently been in holidays in the Alps region, in a little village of less than 100 inhabitants. I visited the war memorial. About twenty-five names were written for the 2WW. For some, 5 of the guys killed were of the same family. Some villages lost all their young people during those wars.

I'm sure that France was against going into Iraq for moral reasons and is very.....oh wait, that's right, they were selling WEAPONS to the Iraqis and didn't want to be found out!

It was never hided, Irak was a real supermarket for French companies between 1975 and 1989... Chirac has been PM two times during this period (1974-1976 and 1986-1988). He had a part of responsability but didn't recognized it. Of course he can be blamed. But aren't we talking of Lebanon ?