First:
To CurtSibling:
The poll choices are racist and stink.
First, I am French! I'm even proud of it, you know. I'm just a "relaxed nationalist" who have no problem joking about it... And yes, the poll choices or supposed to be ironic
To Alcibiaties:
I think many Americans feel betrayed by France's behavior, more then anything else.
France got the USA involved in Vietnam, France has always supported islamic regimes the US opposes, France withdrew from Nato, the French have no problems selling the makings for nuclear weapons to crazy people like the Iranians and Saddam's Iraq, France fearfully wouldn't allow US overflights against Libya (which lead to kadaffi becoming a minor player in the Muslim world, a major US victory), all of this and more, coupled with France's terrible performance in war in the 20th century (Americans hate losers and quiters), all of this adds up.
Have to disagree with you on some point there... for Vietnam, the US actualy supported the french war effort and latter took over because the ennemy was communist. It's the only colonial war on record, if I remember correctly, that the US approved, and that was wholy due to the nature of the opposition. It's hardly France's fault if the Vietnamese liberation mouvement was communist, was it?
About the islamic regimes, shame on us for supporting tyrants, I agree. However, the fact that the US hated them has nothing to do with it. And you keep forgetting that France has strong tie to the Arab world, which influence our foreign policy as well. Hey, around 1/10 of french are muslims now... And then, the US has a pretty bad Cold War record on supporting dictatorship as well.
French removal of NATO was a mistake, though it was always theorical (after all, France took part in the strikes against Serbia and offered military help after 11/9).
The charge on weapon distribution is the most serious, and is one of the things I hate the most with France's post WW2 history
As for our terrible performance against Germany, it's a bit easy for the UK and the US to say... you don't share a land boundary with Germany! The french generals in charge could have won the war if they had attacked when Hitler was busy on the Polish front, granted; but then, the same could be said of the UK. Anyway, France's collapse was the result of poor military planning, not of lack of courage. As for being "quiters", I agree that agreeing to surrender was shameful; but then, nobody know how the US would have reacted with a foreign army marching though their capital! As for french behavior under occupation, I refuse to any country who never suffered the same fate the right to judge us on this one.
Hope I'm not sounding too arrogant there... anyway, it basicaly boils down to two points:
-France does not feel it has to obey the US's every desire, which does not stop us from being on your side on the important issues.
-A country who never saw its territory invaded by a foreign power cannot judge the behavior of an other in those conditions.
Well, enough serious historical debate, the tone of this thread was supposed to be LIGHT and IRONIC
To Lord_Vetinari:
Now that's a good one!
Interesting way to protest, and not as futile as you seems to think: the boycott on french products actualy hurted our exports and embarassed Chirac... not that I mind that very much
To Flatlander Fox:
Well, France also had the mentality that she was undefeatable, especially since the Germans couldn't get over the Maginot line
Wrong. The reason why french generals planned to fight a defensive war is precisely because they felt vulnerable; they thought WW2 would be a WW1-style war and that any attack was doomed to fail. The plan was actualy to block the frontier and wait for Germany to collapse because of lack of resources... like it did in 1918. A France feeling confident in its military capabilities would have attacked... and most probably won. Generals are alway getting ready for the last war, remember
And when the "novelty" is blitzkrieg, that's a mistake you can only afford to make if you happen to have a sea between you and the ennemy.
To every one complaining about French treatments of tourists:
touché How we still manage to be the #1 tourist destination is beyond me
To MrSPice:
I dislike the French farmers for robbing the EU. And the French government for lacking the spine to stand up against them
So do I. Down with the CAP!
Ouchgeddon:
Americans and British alike hate the French in a good-humored, take-and-give sort of way. Not the way, say, Palestinians hate Israelies. Americans 'hate' Canadians too, and vice versa.
Words of Wisdom! CurtSibling, BlueMonday, listen
,theyre music sucks bigtime 