Daniel J. Pipes

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french military prowess

Reader comment on item: The 751 No-Go Zones of France
in response to reader comment: balance please

Submitted by bos (United Kingdom), Feb 14, 2008 at 12:07

you wrote - French DID stand up to the Nazis. The US stood idly by and did nothing to assist its fellow democracy

so what did france do to help Chezchs? or Poland?

and after the war what did the french do to help promote democracy in say, algeria or veitnam?

and in all that standing up to the Nazis what role did vichy france play?

The Brits sent a small expeditionary force which immediately did a volte-face and fled to Dunkirk while their retreat and evacuation was made possible by two French divisions buying them time by fighting a larger Nazi force to a standstill at Lille

The rest of the world thinks the germans stopped their advance because they couldn't believe how easy things were and wanted to assess where the 'inevitable' counter attack was coming from. suggesting liittle military glory for either the french or the british.

if the germans stood still at lille and no where else, perhaps it was becuse they were out of breath from the rate of advance, an army can only charge for so long.

The Brits sent a small expeditionary force which immediately did a volte-face and fled

I'm no fan of the british military but you do get that young british volunteer soldiers died on french soil underprepared and underequipped for engagement with the worlds most evil and powerful military machine, they then continued to die all over north africa, the middle east and europe, often engaging french collaberators.

I note you're in Ireland and would remind you that at least 170,000 irishmen volunteered, not through love of britain but to oppose nazism and. without going into detail your assessment of french military history is clearly prejudiced and you should remember there appauling performance in 1798, and there vile imperial past and current imperial envy.

washington's rabble fought for libertarian ideals, any french allies fought for an emporor.


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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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