Thread: FRENCH PEOPLE ARE DEEPLY GRATEFUL TO THE AMERICANS

This is an email that I received from a friend who made contact with an associate in France about the current situation:

QUOTE:

Thanks for your appreciation. I think european people have a more sensible view of all this, perhaps because history is more present here, because we see every day in the architecture, the languages, remains of past times of fear and violence. Also Europe, as it was for a long time a populated area of the world, had to cope with ressource starvation and, as a consequence, choose a model of development more respectful of environment.

And it's true that, among Europe, french people are often on the first line
to such movements, because our national character is to let ideas spread
and inspire people's political way of acting. You will find in no country
in the world such a taste for philosophical discussion, even in the more
popular bars of the smallest villages. And Jules Caesar, who conquered the gaule two thousand years ago, already wrote that about it's inhabitants.

I hope that people like you, who can see the consequences of the Bush
administration's policy will have their neibours, friends, co-workers and
families know that there is absolutely no "anti-american" feeling in the
french population. Just a few days ago, I could hear an american pilot
interviewed in the air show of Paris - Le Bourget, who said he was very
surprised : the french visitors were very friendly with him, though he
expected that he could be bashed.

This is a deep feeling here, that we have a debt to the american people,
from the two world wars. And this is one of the reasons to help them make up their mind about what did and does the Bush administration, and finally help America to get back to the situation which should be it's in the
nations' choir.

God bless the american people and if necessary show to it's errors to those who still close their eyes.

Judy--I agree with that assessment. Our government would want us to believe that the Europeans hate the American people. My experience with Europeans does not bear out that theory.

Last year, I visited Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. I was pretty worried about going because of what our government had espoused about their hate of Americans. I honestly found the opposite to be true. This was my 6th trip to Europe since 1995 and, except for the fact that the Europeans DID voice their opposition to Bush and Iraq, their attitude towards us was no different in 2004 than it was in 1995.

This trip was the first one I had made where just two women were actually doing it alone--no tour group, etc. I was a little nervous about the kind of reception we would get and we had decided that we would not even MENTION politics, Iraq, ANYTHING controversial. We were taking a train from Austria to the Czech Republic and one of the porters on the train was helping with our luggage. He APPEARED to be a Muslim type. He was a young, educated man and very polite but we were REALLY leery of him. He was the ONLY ONE that we ran into on the entire trip that even brought up the subject and he politely said that his country had nothing against the American people but they had major problems with our President. I truly believe that is their position.

I have to admit that I agreed with the European position about Iraq from the get-go and I don't think we should continue to bash them for not supporting Bush's Iraq policy. Time has proven that they were actually right about Saddam not being a threat to us and we continue to bash them for not supporting us. Iraq was on Bush's agenda long before 9/11. I'm not really sure of his motives but I KNOW that he used 9/11 to justify something that was very important to him long before we were attacked.

If people would stop and think how supportive Europe was when we went into Afghanistan and try to put two and two together, they should be able to see that they had fundamental problems with us going into Iraq and, as sovereign nations, that is their prerogative. If I, as an individual, see my friend doing something that is STUPID, what would I do?? Would I try to discourage them from doing it or would I jump right in and do it with them? I HOPE I would try to discourage them from doing it but, if they were hell-bent on doing it anyway, I would hope I would distance myself from them.

Yeah.. sure.. thats why I saw, firsthand, American graves in France, men who died in Normandy, desecrated by painting red swastikas on their gravestones. My wife and I were also spat upon by french people while in Paris. But no anti-american feelings... RIIIIIGHT.

The frogs can spin this however they like for people who have not experienced their brand of diplomacy firsthand, but some of us know better. I will agree with Bootsie on one thing. After 9/11 we were treated not much different by the frenchies than we were the prior trip there in 1994... they were rude, obnoxious, and arrogant the first time I was there too.

Originally Posted by Bootsie

If I, as an individual, see my friend doing something that is STUPID, what would I do?? Would I try to discourage them from doing it or would I jump right in and do it with them? I HOPE I would try to discourage them from doing it but, if they were hell-bent on doing it anyway, I would hope I would distance myself from them.

Especially when such actions by your "friend" are going to cost you billions in under the table money and cause you some embarassment by exposing how you had been involved in Saddams crimes. The french, as well as germany and russia, were making a fortune by helping prop up Saddam, and were undercutting the effectiveness of any sanctions to fix the problem. They were getting fat, while the consequences of their act was children starving in Iraq and a murderous dictator kept in power.

This is nothing really new... the French did not want anyone to do anything about Hitler either... until he overran THEIR borders... and as it turned out, many of them (Vichy) were buddies of him as well. So much so that they rounded up 35,000 jewish citizens to send to the nazi death camps BEFORE the nazis even asked.

As for your friend doing something "stupid".. well your right.. we should have taken a different path LONG ago, and not become involved in military action in which we were under no threat... and allowed the Nazis to KEEP France. Just as Al Qaeda not iraq was the ones who attacked us now.. Japan, not Germany, attacked us in WWII.

Viva la France!

This e-mail touched my heart. It reminded me of our Nation and the connection between our country and the French People from our beginning when they helped us become a nation and we helped them through two world wars.

It touched my heart because after all these many years, the French still hold the "deep feeling" that they have a debt to the American People.

It touched my heart when at the end of the message, this Frenchman said with conviction, "God bless the American People."

Our friends like all great friendships are those with whom we have battled together for a cause greater than ourselves. Our friends are those who with very little contact since the end of WWII 60 years and almost 2.5 generations ago, still remember, still appreciate and still feel a debt to our America as we should and do to them.

Our friends are not nations like Mexico; who appreciate nothing we do for them; with whom we have never shared a cause greater than ourselves; who have no philosophy; who have never helped another; and who do not even help themselves.

We may be of the same races as Mexico; but we are not of the same people. Millions of Americans for the past 10 years have lost wages, salaries, all the hardship that brings; thousands have lost their lives; many their space; their peace of mind; their sense of security because Mexico has a total lack of respect; lack of dignity; lack of political and philosophical understanding that exists between civilized nations; and lacks a common thought process required for all to exist in harmony and to survive struggles together.

60 years ago, all of Europe was virtually destroyed.

It rebuilt; it never whined; it never showed disrespect; it never blamed innocent countries for its struggle; and has even made peace with Germany.

If you travel the villages of China, you will hear much the same from the Chinese People, I would imagine, as you would hear from the French.

You will hear it from the Brits, the Canadians, the Dutch, the Spanish, the Russians, the Koreans, even the Japanese, and one day, if we do the right things now, we will hear it from the Latin American countries, the Central American countries, the Caribbean nations, and even Mexico.

The struggle today in Latin American countries is their struggle and a situation they need to resolve. It is an economic struggle created in part by their forms of government. Some of these countries are quite successful and on their road to becoming great nation-states. Chile we learned from Sonali is one of those. Chile can be a leader in South America. Chile should lead and set the example. Peru has citizens on the street protesting and will become a better nation as a result. The future of South America is not North America or the United States. The future of South America lies within its boundaries by the decisions and actions of its people, not decisions or actions of Americans.

The same is true for Central America and the Caribbean nations and I believe they are best left alone.

The problems in Mexico increase with our involvement there. It is time for us to cut the cord and force the Mexican People to advance their own nation.

America will have new friends in Iraq and Afghanistan; and Palestine; and Lebanon; and many others who will be inspired over time to follow the Iraqi example in the Middle East.

We are unprotected, but we are not alone. The people of the world know the American People and despite what the MSM has printed for years, we are not the Ugly American to them. We are the Americans for whom they hold a special place in their hearts and a special place in their thoughts. A place that millions of Americans before us earned by doing the right thing at the right times often giving their life to save another on foreign soil and never asking for or expecting anything in return.

That is why the American People are their friends and they are ours.

We do not have this relationship with Mexico and never will until their people start doing the right things at the right times.

Ironically, I believe we actually have this relationship with China, and I'm not sure why I feel that way. I know that we do not have this relationship with the Chinese leadership or the Chinese elite. I believe however that people are people; and the Chinese People know who saved them from Japan. It was not Beijing, it was the Americans. China owes a debt not unlike the debt the French people feel towards us. In return, Beijing points missiles at us; hoards US Dollars; threatens nuclear war over Taiwan; dishonors its Most Favored Nation status (wrongfully given); and wrongfully competes as a government subsidized bidder against our independent publicly traded American Companies; all the while generating no substantial increase in the shared wealth amongst its citizenry of the enormous wealth our trade sacrifices have generated for China. Somehow I believe the Chinese People throughout that vast land know or will soon come to realize that their real friends are not and have never been in Beijing.

As I see the world, I see all guns of the world pointed at the Chinese Communist Regime which represents a Communist Regime unlike any in the history of the World with respect to its cruelty of thought and practice.

As I see the world, I see patience of all civilized countries wearing thin with the Mexico Strategy and doors closing.

Send illegal aliens home to their homelands. They have much to do there, and the sooner they start, the sooner they will receive the benefits of the effort required to build any great nation and a happy and successful people.

America, focus on Americans until no American Child lives below the poverty line. That is what the people of the world who are our friends expect of us. They don't expect us to sacrific our livelihoods or future or nation or our children for illegal aliens. Lets don't disappoint them by losing our nation and dissolving into the slop of the Third World and by doing so pulling their children and ours down with us.

I am afraid you have a terribly naive idea of what the world thinks of us. France, themselves, have stated their goals of the E.U. being a "counter" to American power. Why? If we are their friends, why are they concerned with being a "counter" to it? One cannot set yourself up to be a rival and expect me to believe you are doing it because ya like me.

Originally Posted by Judy

America will have new friends in Iraq and Afghanistan; and Palestine; and Lebanon; and many others who will be inspired over time to follow the Iraqi example in the Middle East.

Which would have never happened had the U.S. not done that "stupid" thing of removing Saddam, which the French tried to keep their "good friend" from doing.

The French People did not speak at the EU. What you heard was a government position perhaps? More likely, you heard an American trade official plant some misinformation? Perhaps they know something of the US Government's plans we don't yet know and wanted to "counter" that? You need to beware of the source of your information....DQ. The French People have no desire to "counter" the power of the United States. My God, their survival depends on the power of the United States. You are reading Globalist Propaganda. The French defeated the EU Constitution, which virtually destroys the EU. The French have closed their borders this week, which destroys Open Borders in Europe. The French have unravelled the Globalists....while we here in America.....are still kissin' their ass.

The French People did not want to go to War with Iraq. I was very upset with the French on this, because this was the first time we were on different sides of the fence. Many nations as you know did not support our invasion of Iraq. I don't know who you are quoting with the word "stupid", but if it was the French Government, with what I know today about the reasons our government decided to go into Iraq which I'm sure the French Government knew before we did, it was a questionable action.

If there are problems for the Americans, who do you think will help us?

Do you think the French or are you betting on the Iraqis?

DonQuixote-- I WILL back down on just one of my statements. I EXLUDE Parisians when I say that I have always been treated with utmost respect in Europe. That is the ONLY place I've visited in Europe where I was treated rudely.

I just don't understand why so many Americans still have their heads in the sand about Iraq. HOWEVER, based on all of the latest polls, even those Americans are beginning to agree with what I felt all along about Iraq. The Bush administration sold Congress and the American people a bill of goods on the reasons they wanted to go to Iraq. IF we had not gone to Iraq, we might actually have bin Laden, Mullah Omar and al Zawahiri in custody now. But, this administration which, by the way, is made up in LARGE part by members of the FIRST Bush administration, was determined to finish the job that Bush I started and didn't finish and they found their chance when we were attacked by Al Qaeda--NOT Saddam Hussein--on 9/11. The facts are irreputable. Iraq was NOT an imminent threat to us. They did NOT have WMD. They certainly did not have nukes. We pretty well had them isolated. Iraq was an unnecessary diversion from the real war that we need to be fighting and that would be to put a screeching halt to Islamic terrorists who are determined to annihilate us. All we did by going to Iraq was to give them yet another reason to want to destroy us.

If you would read the 9/11 report, you would see bin Laden's fatwa for jihad. That fatwa did not say they wanted to kill us because of our freedoms as this administration wants you to believe. It said that it wanted to wipe us out because we, the "infidels", are occupying their holy soil. He specifically referred to our military facility in Saudi Arabia. Well, that just tells me that, by occupying Iraq, we have put our "infidel" feet on one more piece of their so-called HOLY soil. That just seems to me like enough reason to keep ourselves OUT of the middle east. One of his other reasons for this fatwa was our support of Israel. My guess is that the intelligence we got that said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction came from two sources--Israel and the Iraqi National Congress led by Chalabi. It seemed then to me, and certainly has proven out, that those two sources had a vested interest in convincing us to oust Saddam and our government bought it hook, line and sinker.

So, I respect the fact that Europe took a stand and acted on their OWN convictions and did not fold to Bush's statement that, "if you're not with us, you are a terrorist". That is just plain BULL. Just because I was against going to Iraq does NOT make me a terrorist and it does NOT make me an ENEMY of my country. In fact, it does quite the opposite. It means that I care deeply about my country and that I want what it BEST for my country.

What we have created by the poor handling of the war in Iraq is ONE MESS. And, it absolutely has BECOME a training ground for terrorists. WE sure can't afford to pull out of IRaq now because we really would have a bigger mess. We are there and all we can do is try to fix the problems we've created.