valentine

I'm delighted that you qualified the particular segment of the French population for whom you bear resentment (the government). I seriously doubt that Jacque and Pierre out in the vineyard have any clue that they are residing in a country rife with subversion. I suspect that a lot of Americans are employed by the french here in the United States: Olin Chemical, DuPont, Areva and others. They probably do not like the attitude the French have taken toward us, but I doubt they actually harbor hate against the French nation as a whole.

cordycord

Valentine,

My wife is employed by a French firm, which is an entirely different reason to dislike the French. To put it mildly, they have never given me reason to feel that my predispositions about the French are misplaced.

Please also note that my original thread is directed at the government, NOT the people.

When I see news like this regarding the French, the arrest of a top French UN ambassador regarding Oil for Food, the bombing of the Palestine hotel in Iraq by Al Qaeda, and the tying of Hariri's assisination to the pro-terror Syrian government, I am only more convinced that our conduct in Iraq and the greater Middle East is not only necessary, but positively affects our safety at home.

ralper

Zippy

Hate

RC - Ryder

In my business travels around France, I found most of the locals to be friendly, enjoyable and accommodating; the Customs officials were cynnical; my business contacts were mostly arrogant; and many Parisians were fine if you spoke French, cool if you spoke German, and neglected/ignored you if you spoke English.

A Factoid: Sources of yellowcake uranium for weapons or nuclear energy. If you're American go West. If you're Russian go East. If you're South African go to one of your Zulu enclaves. If you're Iran go to the Erbuz(sp) Mountains. If you're North Korean head north and dig. If you're China, perhaps cut a deal with the North Koreans or invade Tibet or Nepal. If you're Israel, I'll skip that one. If you're Japanese, Pakistani, Indian, French, German, Italian and perhaps Sadaam, go to Niger. That's where it's at and sold. The media does always seem to get half the story; unfortuantely half of that half is usually wrong or fabricated.

See, I can do short!

valentine

As to this I will defer to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 6, Vs. 42. . .how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye. (KJV)

We have corruption in our own United States that meets and/or exceeds that of most foreign countries. We really cannot point accusatory fingers to any country's politician's corruption. I do not wish to appear cynical nor do I wish to cast aspersions on our fine troops fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan (I have a son on his way to Iraq at this very moment and who also fought twice in Kosovo and in Afghanistan), however, I disapprove of our present situation. My son and I have had debates over this many, many times.

drewchie

Just what the world needs... more hate.

ralper

Val,

This thread and your reply reminds me of something that I and others said during the campaign. If you remember both candidates bandied around the word "kill" as if it was a nice thing to do. For a while it seemed like each one was trying to out do the other with their promises to "seek out and kill as many terrorists as possible".

I don't remember any time before, not during Vietnam, not from what I've heard of Korea and not of what I've heard of World War II that candidates tried to get elected to office by promising to kill. Maybe its just us, maybe the meaning of words has become cheapened, or maybe we've become a more violent less feeling society, but it certainly seems that words like hate and kill are used more often and with less thought today.

Honda 367

My experience with French people have been fairly positive while I visited France on several occasions. The French government may feel that they should be the world's mightiest country but the reality is they are not. We were allies with France during the early part of our history.

France like all the other countries are always seeking what is in the best interest of their country. Even as we seek what is the best course of action for our country, other countries have the same motivation to position themselves advantageously in our world. When that interest supercedes what is accepted as honorable and noble practice of doing business, we seem to have problems. France definitely sought her own interest in some degree and are obviously reaping the harvest of bad reputation by other countries.

Having said that, I do hope we can find common ground in fighting terrorism. I also hope that all peace loving countries throughout the world may come together and celebrate peace and love while standing together against diabolical efforts of terrorists.

SheDrivesIt

I think he may be talking about the topic title, Val. (edit- your last post seems to have disappeared)

I like to think that we have difficulty getting along with the French because we are so much alike.

We are both often arrogant, self centered, and always poking our noses into other people's business around the world. Kind of like siblings with similar personalities. Hopefully we will all out grow it.