EXCUSE THE HELL OUT OF FRANCE
Here is how the story goes. France was saved by America. In fact, if it weren't for America, the French would be speaking German right now. In true obligationist fashion, France now owes its very existence to America, and should lick America's boot for all eternity. France should even become involved in wars that do not serve her interests, and if France does not comply, American politicians will change the name of french fries to "Freedom fries."
The best answer to this nonsense is the scene in KILLING ZOE where the French bank robbers waste an American asshole who espouses this very view in an attempt to justify his release.
The sad truth is that the devastation experienced by France during the First World War was so horrible that "equivalent losses in America today would be eight million dead, sixteen million wounded, and all the land east of the Ohio and north of the Potomac unrecognizable" (Buchanan xi). In other words, France, a country roughly the size of Texas, lost 1.3 million of her sons in a period where birthrates were already dangerously low.
As Spengler (not Oswald) notes, "Between 1870, when Germany humiliated Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War, and 1914, the population of the German Empire nearly doubled, while the French population was almost unchanged" (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IK13Ak01.html).
Before the outbreak of the war in 1914, Germany had double the manpower of France, and it was openly acknowledged that France's population was dying.
So, essentially, there wasn't a "France" to save after the First World War. American intervention during the Second World War was kind of like denying a dying cancer patient her lethal shot of German morphine, which was France's only chance at a happy death. You can see this embodied in the anarchic, frenzied activities of French students in riots that have become formulaic, which are merely the cancer patient rolling around in bed, agitated over not being allowed to die in one last glorious battle. Being cheated of a happy death is rotten. It is even more rotten to haunt that country's hospital bed, taunting the patient about "Remember how America saved you? Be sure not to forget."
And France cannot, and will not, ever forgive America for not letting her go quietly into the night with a little dignity. Really, the Germans treated the French better than the Americans ever have. Germany essentially admired the French and wanted to build a Berlin that would rival Paris. Washington cannot even comprehend the history of Paris nor the Culture, and merely view France as one more notch in a series of entangling obligations.
So excuse the hell out of France for not being chipper and mindlessly pro-American. Such circumstances can make a country bitter and unkind to the charitable saver of its collective ass.
The best answer to this nonsense is the scene in KILLING ZOE where the French bank robbers waste an American asshole who espouses this very view in an attempt to justify his release.
The sad truth is that the devastation experienced by France during the First World War was so horrible that "equivalent losses in America today would be eight million dead, sixteen million wounded, and all the land east of the Ohio and north of the Potomac unrecognizable" (Buchanan xi). In other words, France, a country roughly the size of Texas, lost 1.3 million of her sons in a period where birthrates were already dangerously low.
As Spengler (not Oswald) notes, "Between 1870, when Germany humiliated Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War, and 1914, the population of the German Empire nearly doubled, while the French population was almost unchanged" (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IK13Ak01.html).
Before the outbreak of the war in 1914, Germany had double the manpower of France, and it was openly acknowledged that France's population was dying.
So, essentially, there wasn't a "France" to save after the First World War. American intervention during the Second World War was kind of like denying a dying cancer patient her lethal shot of German morphine, which was France's only chance at a happy death. You can see this embodied in the anarchic, frenzied activities of French students in riots that have become formulaic, which are merely the cancer patient rolling around in bed, agitated over not being allowed to die in one last glorious battle. Being cheated of a happy death is rotten. It is even more rotten to haunt that country's hospital bed, taunting the patient about "Remember how America saved you? Be sure not to forget."
And France cannot, and will not, ever forgive America for not letting her go quietly into the night with a little dignity. Really, the Germans treated the French better than the Americans ever have. Germany essentially admired the French and wanted to build a Berlin that would rival Paris. Washington cannot even comprehend the history of Paris nor the Culture, and merely view France as one more notch in a series of entangling obligations.
So excuse the hell out of France for not being chipper and mindlessly pro-American. Such circumstances can make a country bitter and unkind to the charitable saver of its collective ass.
posted by Noel at
7:20 PM
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