Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Clicked on the c’est assuré link.
Laughed out loud.
Good one, Lex.
Does this have anything to do with the increase in the number of US Marines in Afghanistan? Maybe the France is volunteering because they know there will be enough Marines to rescue them when things go bad.
Once again Lex … le mot juste, c’est assure, you rascal you.
Marianne
Damn, that was funny. But, heh, I’m Swiss/Italian. Can’t throw stones….
Will they bring their vaunted croissants au beurre, avec café crème?
Would be interesting to see how much time it takes til the first round goes down-range.
“I’ve said we’ll help the Canadians.”
Well, doesn’t that make us feel all warm and fuzzy.
My question is – what did the French just get for agreeing to get their lily white hands dirty.
France….volunteered? To fight?
Great Odin’s Raven! The world’s gone totally insane!
Maybe this is a sign that Europe has a chance after all…
Oui, that last link was good for a real laugh at work.
But it’s funny how the slant on the Canadian Press version of this story differs from the FT link.
For example:
“”We need 1,000 troops. We have to deliver on that commitment before we can extend our mission. This is an important ask for Canada.”
NATO officials who sat in on the meeting said MacKay sketched out the conditions that need to be met, how the government arrived at the decision through the John Manley panel and the “political timelines” facing the Conservatives.
MacKay wouldn’t comment on the possibility that an election might be fought over Afghanistan. But he said “receiving clear signals of support” from allies would go a long way toward informing Canadians and giving them confidence in the NATO-led mission.
France, the United States and Britain are among the countries with the “capability” of meeting Canada’s demand, MacKay said.”
I don’t know, it just seems to spin a little different to me. But hey, at least the French (if they actually show up) should get along well with the Quebec Van Doo regiment currently in theatre. After all, they should speak the same language, n’est-ce pas?
Don’t forget the patented French single pass low altitude weapons airdrop.
Once.
From 5 feet.
At least the Canadians will have all the rifles they need.
Non, Michelle, le français de la France et le français du Québec, ils ne sont pas les mêmes. Les français et les québecois sont aussis deux peuples séparent par une langue commune.
But they do understand each other.
Guess you can do that when you have a Foreign Legion. 2nd REP (Régiment Étranger de Parachutistes ) makes it’s way to another out of the way place.
The link title had me going for a second.
Visions of France sending troops to Quebec for a retry on the Plains of Abraham.
Well, at least I understood you, Theodore. And I’m not even Quebecois. Now that’s scary.
But you’re right, ce n’est pas les meme choses. Mais … close enough. I think they kind of think alike!
Steve, I’ve been to the Plains of Abraham. Does anybody else here ever spend a morning a places like that, or perhaps Gettysburgh or Wounded Knee or the Little Big Horn, and ponder that here men fought? Some fought and lived, some fought and died, on such an otherwise-unassuming patch of land?
Some day I should like to see Iwo Jima, Thermopylae, Hisarlik, and of course Normandy.
Lincoln said it best, “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”
Hard to imagine, putting your life on the line at 35K feet. Nowhere near home and hearth. Hard too when it’s on the line on a bit of volcanic rock, a cow pasture, a desert plain or a sandy beach.
Gives one a bit of perspective. That other men fought, died and lived here, I am and can be.
– Max
MaxDamage, I lived two years near Gettysburg. Standing at The Angle, or nearly anywhere on the battlefield, is very strange. Such ordinary-looking ground. A distant tree line. Grass. Fences. An unimpressive stone wall. A little clump of trees. 50,000 men dead, wounded, captured, or missing. The mind struggles to grasp it. About 20,000 men fought to take or defend that little wall and clump of trees. How? There isn’t enough *room* there. And it’s impossible that anyone climbed Little Round Top under fire, let alone nearly took it. Ridiculous that anyone made a bayonet charge down it. History needs to stop telling us these impossible things. They’re too hard to live up to.
Theodor,
Quebec and France may be slightly different, but remember the old Quebec “Iron Guard” during the 40s that opposed Allied bombing of French territory? Or about the efforts of Philippe Rossillon on behalf of France in the 60s. De Gaulle’s statement “Vive le Quebec Libre.” Even the Quebec terrorist organization FLQ was pro-French and anti-American.
From that FT article:
Why the Hell not? Or is this “plausible deniability” at work?
Max,
I get your point.
I had similar feelings standing on a bridge near Concord late one afternoon.
I haven’t yet had the privilege of walking any of the Civil War battlefields. Yet.
FWIW, the members of the Royal 22nd Regiment, otherwise known as the Van Doos, speak French; they do not carry French passports. And they tend to be good soldiers. I am quite certain they can assist the incoming French Army troops to achieve the requisite standard.
Cheers
I don’t know why the French haven’t sent some Legionaires. Isn’t that what they are for, to fight where the French gov’t doesn’t want to send Frenchmen? And the French mountain troops are a bunch of right bastids themselves….