You could have heard a pin drop....

[Mark]

I had to steal this from the MWC board. Good stuff.

Once upona time when our politicians tend to apologize for our country's prior actions, here's a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative comments about our country.


These are good


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


JFK'S
Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when
DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US
military out of France as soon as possible.



Rusk responded,
"Does that include those who are buried here?"



DeGaulle
did not respond.

You
could have heard a pin drop.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




When in England ,
at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the
Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of
'empire building' by George Bush.




He answered by saying,
"Over the years, the United States has sent many of
its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom
beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for
in return is enough to bury those that did not
return."

You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


There was a conference in France
where a number of international engineers
were taking part, including French and American. During a break,
one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, "Have you
heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft
carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims.. What does he
intend to do, bomb them?"



A Boeing engineer
stood up and replied quietly: "Our carriers have three
hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are
nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to
shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to
feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand
gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a
dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and
from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships;

how many does France have?"
You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


A U.S. Navy Admiral
was attending a naval conference that included
Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French
Navies At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large
group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many
languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, "Why is it that
we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than
speaking French?"



Without hesitating,
the American Admiral replied, "Maybe it's because the
Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't
have to speak German."

You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


AND
THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...



Robert Whiting,
an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.
At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport
in his carry on.


"You
have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked
sarcastically.



Mr. Whiting
admitted that he had been to France
previously.



"Then
you should know enough to have your passport ready."



The American said,
"The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."


"Impossible..
Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France !"



The American senior
gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he
quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in
1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen
to show a passport to."


You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am proud to be of this land, AMERICA

[Bloo]

Amen, brother!

[Lobo_for_life]

These are great. We always need to remember to celebrate the greatness of our nation. I wish some of our current politicians could remember that, and see some of these great anecdotes.

[TheLoboMan]

Funny thing is that both parties just don't get it. They don't listen to the people.

[adobeman]

Funny thing is that both parties just don't get it. They don't listen to the people.

yeah, but it's not really funny........

[Mark]

I posted this to not get political but as a feel good. Let's keep it that way please!

[UNM Class of 1972]

I posted this to not get political but as a feel good. Let's keep it that way please!

I am sure your intentions are good but as a French-Amercian I didn't laugh very much. Patriotism is great but jingoism isn't my cup of tea.

[FoKuZ]

Great read Mark

[sandia mt]

I am sure your intentions are good but as a French-Amercian I didn't laugh very much. Patriotism is great but jingoism isn't my cup of tea.

Agree - there are numerous stories of the appreciation the French have shown. They have memorials up for American servicemen. They have not forgotten. Just take a trip to Normandy or Lorraine. (there are others as well)

[Howler]

I am sure your intentions are good but as a French-Amercian I didn't laugh very much. Patriotism is great but jingoism isn't my cup of tea.

I gave you a thanks on your post, UNM Class of 1972, to help counteract the groan you received. You stated your opinion in a respectful manner and even if it isn't a popular one I don't believe it deserved a groan. Also, I do agree with the distinction you make between patriotism and jingoism.

[Roob]

The pats on the back did come at the expense of the French in that writeup. They should have tossed in some examples of Canadians, Mexicans, and a few other countries for better balance. That way it would come across as Pro-American (which was how most of us read it) rather than Anti-France. Next time.

[MacLobo]

I am sure your intentions are good but as a French-Amercian I didn't laugh very much. Patriotism is great but jingoism isn't my cup of tea.

I wouldn't classify this post as jingoism by any means....they are witty replies made by individuals who perhaps fealt insulted by other individuals....not to mention that 1 is made to an Englishman, 1 is in ref to US engineering vs. French engineering, and one is mostly about an elderly gentleman putting a smart-ass in his place. Sure, some people can be extreme patriots, but I don't think that is the case in this post or it's intent.

[Roob]

I wouldn't classify this post as jingoism by any means....they are witty replies made by individuals who perhaps fealt insulted by other individuals....not to mention that 1 is made to an Englishman, 1 is in ref to US engineering vs. French engineering, and one is mostly about an elderly gentleman putting a smart-ass in his place. Sure, some people can be extreme patriots, but I don't think that is the case in this post or it's intent.

You're not French-American are you? LOL

I wonder how popular this thread would have been if the examples had been Irish, Italian, and Mexican.

[NMStorm]

The first sentence makes the post a political one. I didn't take it as jingoism either. My issue with them is that they simply aren't true but rather stories, or circumstances that were manipulated to fit the story. As an example the former (not current) archbishop of Canterbury asked General Powell a respectful and well articulated question that was mangled into that deliberately-defined question above. I think general Powell's full response deserves a space on this forum so here it is:

There is nothing in American experience or in American political life or in our culture that suggests we want to use hard power. But what we have found over the decades is that unless you do have hard power -- and here I think you're referring to military power -- then sometimes you are faced with situations that you can't deal with.

I mean, it was not soft power that freed Europe. It was hard power. And what followed immediately after hard power? Did the United States ask for dominion over a single nation in Europe? No. Soft power came in the Marshall Plan. Soft power came with American GIs who put their weapons down once the war was over and helped all those nations rebuild. We did the same thing in Japan.

So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others I think is clear. And I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world.

(Applause.)

We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we've done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works

-------------

I think the general's actual words are far more powerful and incredibly impressive. I think we Americans missed the boat on General Powell; he might be EXACTLY what we are looking for in regards to presidential leadership.

This response is also not meant to be political...unless you think my compliments of the general are political. I prefer fact to fiction, that's all.

[nmsutoo]

I am sure your intentions are good but as a French-Amercian I didn't laugh very much. Patriotism is great but jingoism isn't my cup of tea.

Just curious, we know which country you chose to live in, Why?

[Wolfen1]

I thought this board was dedicated to Lobo basketball?Filler time, I guess.

[NMStorm]

Just curious, we know which country you chose to live in, Why?

What's the point of this question? Just curious nmstuoo, what branch of the military did you serve in?

[NMStorm]

I thought this board was dedicated to Lobo basketball?Filler time, I guess.

IMO it's better than 20 pages of discussion about gross beer. I know...I'm in the minority on that one.

I think I already scewed it up though and it's either going to get moved, locked, or both.

[MacLobo]

IMO it's better than 20 pages of discussion about gross beer. I know...I'm in the minority on that one.

I think I already scewed it up though and it's either going to get moved, locked, or both.

FYI....even though it got moved, I think your post above is one of your best ever!

[NMStorm]

FYI....even though it got moved, I think your post above is one of your best ever!

Thanks...I knew that as soon as I got involved that it would get moved. :(

[johnson33]

I doubt it, people like that always view America like a figure skating judge. Always looking for deductions, never the positives.


____________
Allen123

[colt6bt]

In fareness to the French, their Army faces far more deployments than ours does. They fill a larger contingency in NATO than the US does and their military is stretched out further across the globe than ours is. They got a bad rap for not supporting the US during OIF. But what most people don't realize is that nearly 1/3 of the French Army was deployed at the time with units deployed to combat and peace keeping missions in Europe ( Kosovo, Georgia, Macedonia, and Boznia), Africa(Western Sahara, the Sinai, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia, Burundi, Ivory Coast and Chad), The Carribean (Haiti, French Antilles), and South America (French Guianna). They were stretched pretty thin, unless they wanted to destroy soldier morale by shortening the training cycles between deployments while risking their national security by reducing the number of troops dedicated to home country defense operations. I can definately understand why they opted not to participate in OIF. But for the record, the French (especially officers) don't typically go out of their way to overcome sterotypes. They are in my opinion, the SDSU Fans of the military world. That's just based on my experience.

[ABQJack]

France as the hapless whipping-boy again eh? LOL!

Pretty sure they helped the original colonies defeat them there white-eyed Red Coats back in the (deemed good) "Revolutionary War."

No actually, thinking on it -- I am absolutely 101% positive that they did help us win that thing. Statue of Liberty was a gift from France also.

Lived in Germany for 3 and 1/2 years, age 12-15. Traveled extensively in France with our family, and, flat-out loved everything I saw, heard and most especially, the several visits to Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre Art Museum.

IDK I reckon it's ever better to travel here and there and learn some strange foreign stuff, if you are able; don't tend to be so "provincial or chauvinistic" thatta way.