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How general is the anti-French sentiment in the U.S.?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by sinohero, Mar 13, 2003.

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  1. sinohero

    sinohero Member

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    I am a college student on a liberal Boston campus. There was a notice in front of my dorm for the (weekly) "French Movie Night". Someone wrote "boo" and drew an arrow linking it to the word "french". I found the incident rather amusing, after the silliness of "freedom fries" and such. Of course my feelings would be different if I were French or had close French friends. Come to think about it, the action was innocuous but insensitive.

    The point of the thread is that I would like to know the extent of anti-French sentiment in different parts of the United States seeing that we have a fairly representative group of posters here. Maybe everyone might have seen some expressions of a large number of Americans. All the amusing tidbits of anti-French incidents would be fun...or alarming, depending on your perspective on the war. Only it might be better that we hold back judgements on these incidents, and record what we see ourselves first.

    Good cultural history for all!
     
    #1 sinohero, Mar 13, 2003
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2003
  2. Two Sandwiches

    Two Sandwiches Member

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    I think the whole thing is silly. Let's hate a county because they won't let us go to war....Now, let's change every thing we can with that country's name in it... Next we're gonna buy their products just so we can poor them out in the street.

    The US may be one of the best countries in the world, but they have some of the stupidest people. "Liberty" Fries...come on. How silly and childish is that?
     
    #2 Two Sandwiches, Mar 13, 2003
  3. Cohen

    Cohen Member

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    1. It is all quite serious. For years, France has sought international prestige by being a thorn in the US's backside. In this instance, they took it to a new level.

    * US-French relations will not recover for many years, if ever.
    * Their stance can impact their hope to lead the EU
    * The UN may suffer a serious blow

    2. They cannot stop us from going to war.
     
    #3 Cohen, Mar 13, 2003
  4. Two Sandwiches

    Two Sandwiches Member

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    Ok...I may not be aware of some of the issues then. I don't know if have room to speak on this then But...

    I think it will cause a great blow to the UN, especially if us Americans continue to make as big a deal out of it. I think we are taking it too far. Sadly, I think we may be heading towards another World War.:mad: seriously.
     
    #4 Two Sandwiches, Mar 13, 2003
  5. RocketBurrito

    RocketBurrito Member

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    World War? With who? Gimme a break...

    Listen, the UN has no legitimacy whatsoever. It is NOT representative of the people of the world - unless you think that the UN reps sent by dozens of petty dictatorships represent the true feelings of the people of those countries.

    Keep UNESCO, UNICEF & some of the cultural programs & junk the rest. Try it again by making membership in it limited to freely-elected representative governments...

    Right now it is nothing but a self-serving debating society.
     
    #5 RocketBurrito, Mar 13, 2003
  6. Cohen

    Cohen Member

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    What are we taking too far? UN resolutions? How many years do rogue countries get to abide by disarmament requirements? 10,15,20 years?

    In this instance, you have a rogue nation that has:
    1) Invaded a neighbor
    2) Used WMD
    3) Torture and murders many of it's own people each year
    4) Is a viable threat to the US, providing terrorists with weapons that would be difficult to acquire w/o a State sponsor.

    Now, I imagine that the Administration considered Iraq enough of a threat that we couldn't wait another year to see what he could develop. Our forces are now in place and cannot wait much longer (due to weather) if we are going to do this.

    That's how I see it.
     
    #6 Cohen, Mar 13, 2003
  7. sinohero

    sinohero Member

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    Well the UN is pretty much dead. Or to be specific, the security council. All the cultural institutions in the UN are good and all, but the UN without the UNSC is really just a collection of International Postal Unions.

    I do not take issue with the Bush administration since the Europeans, or rather Chiraq singlehandedly, killed the UNSC. But I do have a problem with the tactics the Bush team used. Overall France and Germany are still much closer to the U.S. than most other countries, meaning they are both stable, advanced democracies. One would, and I had before the crisis, expected them to mostly take the American side on things (it is precisely the dissonance between the lofty expectations and the French and German treachery that produced this anger now.) Waht the American government should have done was to make a distinction between French and German governments and their people. Instead of attacking "France" or "Germany", people like Rumsfeld should perhaps aimed more sharply at Chiraq and Shroeder. The German government under Shroeder seemed, and remains today, very unstable. It would have been a very profitable target for the American diplomatic efforts before the sh8t hit the fan late last year. Of course, my talk of possible diplomatic nuance is all MMQB stuff, so you can perfectly ignore it.

    The anti-French movement though, is completely another matter. From what I have seen, although Fox might have had a hand in this, the movement was largely spontaneous and grass-roots while being media savvy, with press releases of wine dumping and all. The American public's populist tendency in foreign policy, an area usually reserved for aristocrats in the old world, was rather striking and lovely.
     
    #7 sinohero, Mar 13, 2003
  8. rockHEAD

    rockHEAD Member

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    Go to Google and type in "french military victories" and hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button.
     
    #8 rockHEAD, Mar 14, 2003
  9. fatfatcow

    fatfatcow Member

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    to make the american feel better to go without the un approval, it must make an enemy out of the opposition(french) make the american public hate the french n think its all good to go to war without the un permission.
     
    #9 fatfatcow, Mar 14, 2003
  10. Elliott03

    Elliott03 Member

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    Its not like its a one sided thing. The French have been complete jackasses to americans for years. it seems like they have always hated everything american.
    Of course not all french people are like this, I actually have a good friend that is french now living in glasgow, but most ive met turn up there nose that I live in the US also that I still have a bit of scottish accent.
     
    #10 Elliott03, Mar 14, 2003
  11. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    Again, I believe it was FranchiseBlade who pointed out that France has given us the most military support in the war in Afghanistan.

    We went out for drinks last night and spent a few minutes making fun of the morons who are calling them "Freedom Fries" and stuff like that. I least they provided us some laughs.
     
    #11 Rocketman95, Mar 14, 2003
  12. Sonny

    Sonny Member

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    Hi, Read Sig.

    oh and SCREW the Dixie Tricks.
     
    #12 Sonny, Mar 14, 2003
  13. Buck Turgidson

    Buck Turgidson Member

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    Excellent, excellent post sinohero, I couldn't agree more.

    Cohen is right about the EU, it's not just America that views the French government this way: England, Spain, Italy & the former Soviet satellites all have much the same issues.

    While most of the blame lies with Chirac & the government, let's not forget that the French people made a national bestseller out of a book that charged the U.S. government with carrying out the attacks of 9/11.
     
    #13 Buck Turgidson, Mar 14, 2003
  14. Rockets2K

    Rockets2K Clutch Crew

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    I cant speak for the rest of the country, but as for myself and the few people I have talked to about this....we think it's a big joke.

    The French have always been a bunch of snobs, thinkin they are better than everyone else..culture,fashio,culinary....
    We have just as much distaste for the French now as we have had in the past. It hasnt increased just because of their self-serving stance on Iraq.

    Reminds me of the Dennis Miller quote I posted a day or two back..funny as hell...:D

    "I cant believe they gave us the Statue of Liberty, they must have been throwing it away anyway."

    "There's an extra fiver in it for you if you hit a skunk"
     
    #14 Rockets2K, Mar 14, 2003
  15. Buck Turgidson

    Buck Turgidson Member

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    I believe he saw that on "Crossfire", and it was strictly limited to air support, not ground forces. I'm not saying that he's wrong, but I've been unable to coroborate it.

    Where oh where is Mango when you need him?
     
    #15 Buck Turgidson, Mar 14, 2003
  16. Surfguy

    Surfguy Member

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    Now, at least one in Congress is proposing allowing our government to pay for bringing back buried soldiers in France from WWII because this person doesn't feel France appreciates the sacrifices that were made by America in WWII. This person says if the families feel like the French don't appreciate what they did...we should dig up and move the bodies for families who want their loved ones returned home.

    Let the dead lie where they lay. Geez. Go read the story at CNN.

    If I feel like eating French cheese, than I am going to have me some f*ckin French cheese. We are not at war with France. They don't want war and have strong economic ties with Iraq. I think they are the biggest exporter to Iraq and Iraq owes France much money. I'm sure that has some part of their stance as they stand to lose economically with any US takeover.

    In conclusion, we should invade France. Thank you. :D
     
    #16 Surfguy, Mar 14, 2003
  17. Rockets2K

    Rockets2K Clutch Crew

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    no thanks...it would smell worse than the Ship Channel basin..It would take months to get the stench out. :D:D
     
    #17 Rockets2K, Mar 14, 2003
  18. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    You know what's funny, when guys from the same political leaning refer to each other's post as excellent......

    "Excellent post Buck" , "thanks Cohen, yours was excellent also"

    "Your post was great Glynch" "Thanks Achabe, so was yours"

    Just Random Thoughts,
     
    #18 pgabriel, Mar 14, 2003
  19. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    Well, having it strictly limited to air support doesn't make me appreciate it any less, if it's true. The fact still remains that they supported us greatly in that effort, which hurts the argument that they never help us or don't appreciate us.
     
    #19 Rocketman95, Mar 14, 2003
  20. Rockets2K

    Rockets2K Clutch Crew

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    They didnt have any economic interests to protect in Afganistan.

    Different story in Iraq...
     
    #20 Rockets2K, Mar 14, 2003
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