I think I have the French figured out...

[jnevis]

Fighting a foreign power for thier own security is out of the question.  Pitching a fit over not getting a hand out or something they have no control over, totally acceptable.

Losing to the British, the Germans TWICE, and others didn't even phase them
Raise the retirement age...Better not, I won't get enough money from the government.  Especially since they raised it to the same age as a lot of other countries.
Redirect a flight to a OPEN airport HELL NO!!! it'll ruin my vacation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101117/ts_afp/belgiumirelandprotestairlinecompanyryanair

[twyacht]

Had em' figured out a while ago,...

[fightingquaker13]

Sad thing is the French have some of the finest troops in the world. The Legion and their Marine Infantry Parachute troops along with the the DGSE make the Rangers and CIA SAD look like boy scouts with the way they operate in Africa. Important safty tip: Don't piss off the French in Chad, Djbouti or Senegal. Its the politicians that are the problem. How so many hard core operators can cheerfully serve a bunch of spineless azzholes for so long I have no idea.
FQ13

[tombogan03884]

It's called Chauvinism, St. Cyr teaches the Officer corps that "They are French", They do not need strategy or tactics, That crap is for Countries that do not have Elan and Style !
Like, for one example, Germany.  

PS, Don't give the DGSE to much credit, their internal security has sucked for 60+ years. During the Cold war they were so badly penetrated that classified information often reached Moscow faster than it reached Paris, that was why NATO countries gave the French no more than they absolutely had to, they KNEW it was nothing but a pipeline to Dzerzhinsky Square .

[TAB]

French rifles for sale, *cheap*.  never fired, droped once.


You know its funny, the french use to be bad asses, then they went limp sort of speak.

[Sponsor]

[seeker_two]

You know its funny, the french use to be bad asses, then they went limp sort of speak.

You can pretty much thank WWI for that....all their real men died defending Paris in the trenches....and they've never recovered....maybe we can lend them Chuck Norris and R. Lee Ermey for a week and save them again....

[tombogan03884]

The French "Soldier" has always been a fighting man to respect, Napoleon's "Old Guard" for example, died to the last man at Waterloo, The Legion Company at Camerone, reduced to 6 men, they fixed bayonets and charged, there were survivors, but only because they were overwhelmed and clubbed senseless, the troops who fought in Algeria, and Indochina, were tough, merciless and determined.
They have however, always been cursed with an Officer corps that considered "arrogance" as a military virtue, and believed that simply being French was a military advantage.

[Pathfinder]

You can pretty much thank WWI for that....all their real men died defending Paris in the trenches....and they've never recovered....maybe we can lend them Chuck Norris and R. Lee Ermey for a week and save them again....

Actually, you're probably not too far off on that observation. The sheer massacre that occurred on the Western Front - modern weapons and 19th Century troop formations led to huge fatalities - did wipe out appalling numbers of men in France especially, but also the UK and Germany. Sure, there have been physical males born since then, but I think that war, coupled with WWII so closely behind it, induced a form of psychosis over Europe that prevents them to this day from defending themselves against any onslaught.

[tombogan03884]

Path is right, They call it the "lost generation" because it died in the trenches.
The truth of WWI is that in 1917 Germany's adoption of "storm" tactics put them in a position where they might very well have won the war. The European allies just did not have enough population left to fill the line. The separate peace with Russia after the revolution gave the Germans a huge influx of additional troops for the Western Front.
America's biggest contribution was pure and simple numbers of fresh warm bodies to plug the holes, the fact that they could alo fight well broke the spirit of the German people who up till that time had with stood huge losses and near starvation due to the naval blockade.