--- Nick Arnett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Given your earlier misrepresentation of French > gratitude about its > liberation in WWII and now this comment, I'm > wondering if you simply don't > know much about France or you have some anti-French > prejudice, or it is > carelessness driven by your distaste for their > position regarding Iraq... or > what? In any event, I hope the clarifications are > appreciated. > > Nick
Since they seem to be made by someone who knows a _lot_ less of France's history than I do, no, not really. The Vichy government was a collaborationist government of France that ran southern France _without German occupation_ for much of the early war. German troops did not move into Vichy-controlled areas for at least a couple of years after 1940. German demands for the exportation of Jews were met with more alacrity in France than they were in _Italy_, an actual honest-to-God Axis power. There is no record of significant efforts to prevent the massacre of the Jews by the Vichy government, which had much more independence than dilettantes in French history realize, by the French Catholic Church, by the Resistance, or by anyone else of significance in French society. You might want to look up the Dreyfuss Affair for more information on how deeply anti-Semitism was set into the elites of French society. Zola (who wrote J'Accuse!) was driven into exile and, many people believe, murdered for his role in exposing this. Nor do I think I was misrepresenting anything about French gratitude - I don't think anything you say quite qualifies as demonstrating that I am "misrepresenting" anything. When a bestselling book in France is about how Americans were responsible for the 9/11 attacks, that rather says something about French society. When American tourists in France are told to identify themselves as Canadian to avoid trouble, that says something too. When France expelled American soldiers - another incident you might want to examine, and prompting the SecDef at the time to ask De Gaulle, in one of the great moments in American diplomatic history, "Does that include the ones buried in Normandy?", that wasn't exactly an expression of gratitude either, come to think of it. I wonder if given your earlier arrogant sanctimoniousness on related topics you simply don't know much about France and world politics in general, or you have some need to preen in your own perceived superiority, or you're driven by your contempt for people from conservative positions, or what? I hope this clarification helps. Now, are we done? Do you want to at least pretend to be civil to me, and stop calling me a fascist or a bigot, and I'll stop calling you an arrogant prick and a fool, or does this have to continue? I don't want it too, but I'm not willing to put up with it in silence, either. Gautam __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business online http://webhosting.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
