Just read an intresting article by Father Greely the famos priest-best selling author from Chicago.I love reading his articles although I disagree with him many times.
But with Bush visiting French President Chirac at the G-8 summits today I thought Greelys comments about the french were kind of funny.
It was reported today that Bush and Chirac had a "short handshake and Chirac a stiff smile".
With all the "french bashing" the past couple months,Father Greely article from a few weeks ago seems pretty timely with today"Leave the French alone".
I'll paste a few paragraphs from the Chicago paper he writes for.
Here it is..............................
"leave the french alone"
Despite the urgings of the president and the secretary of state, we should leave the French alone.
I admit that their arrogant pretense of superiority is infuriating. The very tonalities of their language suggest that the speaker is looking down his nose in contempt. Yet the superior style is merely a cover-up for the deep-seated French feeling of inferiority.
France is a fourth-rate nation that has no power outside of its former African colonies into which it sends an occasional battalion of paratroopers to straighten out the mess France left in these pseudo countries, or to make it worse. If you have no power, then the next best thing is to pretend that you do.
At the end of the 18th century, France was arguably the most powerful nation in the world. It was able to impose on most of the world the metric system of measurement and driving on the right-hand side of the road.
Since 1815, it has not won a single major military victory, except an occasional triumph over desert tribesmen. France lost three major wars to the Germans (1815, 1870, 1939) and would have lost a fourth (1914) if it hadn't been for American intervention. Their generals are great at analyzing a situation but not very good at doing anything about it.
Greely forgot to mention the Vietnam war.And that Paris was the 1st capital to fall w/o someone defending it in 100 yrs[WW-2].
Thats puts France at 0-5 in major wars and 2-16 in battles. The Detroit tigers have a better record.
But with Bush visiting French President Chirac at the G-8 summits today I thought Greelys comments about the french were kind of funny.
It was reported today that Bush and Chirac had a "short handshake and Chirac a stiff smile".
With all the "french bashing" the past couple months,Father Greely article from a few weeks ago seems pretty timely with today"Leave the French alone".
I'll paste a few paragraphs from the Chicago paper he writes for.
Here it is..............................
"leave the french alone"
Despite the urgings of the president and the secretary of state, we should leave the French alone.
I admit that their arrogant pretense of superiority is infuriating. The very tonalities of their language suggest that the speaker is looking down his nose in contempt. Yet the superior style is merely a cover-up for the deep-seated French feeling of inferiority.
France is a fourth-rate nation that has no power outside of its former African colonies into which it sends an occasional battalion of paratroopers to straighten out the mess France left in these pseudo countries, or to make it worse. If you have no power, then the next best thing is to pretend that you do.
At the end of the 18th century, France was arguably the most powerful nation in the world. It was able to impose on most of the world the metric system of measurement and driving on the right-hand side of the road.
Since 1815, it has not won a single major military victory, except an occasional triumph over desert tribesmen. France lost three major wars to the Germans (1815, 1870, 1939) and would have lost a fourth (1914) if it hadn't been for American intervention. Their generals are great at analyzing a situation but not very good at doing anything about it.
Greely forgot to mention the Vietnam war.And that Paris was the 1st capital to fall w/o someone defending it in 100 yrs[WW-2].
Thats puts France at 0-5 in major wars and 2-16 in battles. The Detroit tigers have a better record.
