Andy Rooney on France

[Bite]

Just in case you missed it on 60 Minutes a couple weeks ago....


"You can't beat the French when it comes to food, fashion, wine or perfume,
but they lost their license to have an opinion on world affairs years ago.
They may even be selling stuff to Iraq and don't want to hurt business.

The French are simply not reliable partners in a world where the good people
in it ought to be working together. Americans may come off as international
jerks sometimes but we're usually trying to do the right thing.

The French lost WW II to the Germans in about 20 minutes. Along with the
British, we got into the war and had about 150,000 guys killed getting their
country back for them. We fought all across France, and the Germans finally
surrendered in a French schoolhouse.

You'd think that school building in Reims would be a great tourist
attraction, but it isn't. The French seem embarrassed by it. They don't want
to call attention to the fact that we freed them from German occupation.

I heard Steven Spielberg say the French wouldn't't even let him film the
D-Day scenes in "Saving Private Ryan" on the Normandy beaches. They want
people to forget the price we paid getting their country back for them.

Americans have a right to protest going to war with Iraq. The French do not.
They owe us the independence they flaunt in our face at the U.N.

I went into Paris with American troops the day we liberated it, Aug. 25,
1944. It was one of the great days in the history of the world.
French women showered American soldiers with kisses, at the very least.

The next day, the pompous Charles de Gaulle marched down the mile long
Champs Elysee to the Place de la Concorde as if he had liberated France
himself. I was there, squeezed in among a hundred tanks we'd given the Free
French Army that we brought in with us.

When we go to Paris every couple of years now, I rent a car. I drive around
the Place de la Concorde, and when some French driver blows his horn for me
to get out of his way, I just smile and say to myself, "Go ahead, Pierre. Be
my guest. I know something about this very place you'll never know."

The French, a third-rate power with a third-rate track record since the end
of WWI, have not earned their right to oppose President Bush's plans
to attack Iraq.


-- Andy Rooney --

 

[HappyPuppy]

Sad, but true.

 

[Zebo]

LOL

I remember when 60 minutes fired Rooney about 15 years ago they dropped form ratings in the 20s to a teens plus got sh1tloads of hate mail.. He is the man

 

[konichiwa]

And we owe our 1776 revolution to France, so the score is even. Can we get over this petty schoolyard bickering and move onto some productive world affairs now, please?

 

[LilBlinbBlahIce]

Originally posted by: konichiwa
And we owe our 1776 revolution to France, so the score is even. Can we get over this petty schoolyard bickering and move onto some productive world affairs now, please?

Yeah, I mean do we expect them to be indebted to us till the end of time? Come on now. That's the problem with democracy, people can disagree with you. Get over it.

 

[ReiAyanami]

they gave us much needed funding in the revolutionary war, but then they fought us in the French and Indian War, and we saved them in WWII so lets call it even

 

[Stark]

Originally posted by: LilBlinbBlahIce

Originally posted by: konichiwa
And we owe our 1776 revolution to France, so the score is even. Can we get over this petty schoolyard bickering and move onto some productive world affairs now, please?

Yeah, I mean do we expect them to be indebted to us till the end of time? Come on now. That's the problem with democracy, people can disagree with you. Get over it.

Well, the english still hate them in part for fighting against them in the revolution (along with scores of other conflicts). Now we get to hate them too. Yay.

 

[Squisher]

Have you ever heard of the term "what have you done for me lately?"

My Father fought in WWII, he is still very much alive to retell the tale.

It might seem eons removed from your frame of reference, but to some, watching their blood spilled on soil of France seems all too recent to some.


Does France have the right to oppose this latest war? Sure they do.

Do some have the right to feel betrayed? Yes they do.


Our veterans have just that right. I will not deny them.

Do I think that France's opposition to this war was driven by more then a desire to take the moral high ground? Yes I do.

 

[apoppin]

Rooney speaks his mind . . . he had quite an anti-war piece too.

Anyway I think the French Government realizes their error in alienating the US and have already made "overtures" to save face while holding out some hope to normalize relations with the US. And we have to realize they are a democracy - their citizens (along with the citizens of most of the world) opposed the invasion if Iraq by the US/Britain.

I don't think the French - US relations will "normalize" until after the current Administration end in 2 or 6 years. BUT THEY WILL NORMALIZE. It is both in the US' and France's best interests to be allies.

 

[tcsenter]

The French, a third-rate power with a third-rate track record since the end
of WWI, have not earned their right to oppose President Bush's plans to attack Iraq.

Rooney finished that commentary with [paraphrased], "However, I have."

I believe there are also a few more lines missing, something about someone interrupting the celebration in Paris by shooting from a building and the tankers he was surrounded by returning fire with their machine guns.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

The French, a third-rate power with a third-rate track record since the end
of WWI, have not earned their right to oppose President Bush's plans to attack Iraq.

Rooney finished that commentary with [paraphrased], "However, I have."

I believe there are also a few more lines missing, something about someone interrupting the celebration in Paris by shooting from a building and the tankers he was surrounded by returning fire with their machine guns.

You're right!


Link to CBS and the whole transcript:

You can't beat the French when it comes to food, fashion, wine or perfume, but they lost their license to have an opinion on world affairs years ago. They may even be selling stuff to Iraq and don't want to hurt business.

The French are simply not reliable partners in a world where the good people in it ought to be working together. Americans may come off as international jerks sometimes but we're usually trying to do the right thing.

The French lost WW II to the Germans in about 20 minutes. Along with the British, we got into the war and had about 150,000 guys killed getting their country back for them. We fought all across France, and the Germans finally surrendered in a French schoolhouse.

You'd think that school building in Reims would be a great tourist attraction but it isn't. The French seem embarrassed by it. They don't want to call attention to the fact that we freed them from German occupation.

I heard Steven Spielberg say the French wouldn't even let him film the D-Day scenes in ?Saving Private Ryan? on the Normandy beaches. They want people to forget the price we paid getting their country back for them.

Americans have a right to protest going to war with Iraq. The French do not. They owe us the independence they flaunt in our face at the U.N.

I went into Paris with American troops the day we liberated it, Aug. 25, 1944. It was one of the great days in the history of the world.

French women showered American soldiers with kisses, at the very least. The next day, the pompous Charles de Gaulle marched down the mile long Champs Elysee to the Place de la Concorde as if he had liberated France himself. I was there, squeezed in among a hundred tanks we'd given the Free French Army that we brought in with us.

Suddenly there were sniper shots from the top of a building. Thousands of Frenchmen who had come to see de Gaulle scrambled to get under something. I got under an Army truck myself. The tank gunners opened fire on the building where the shots had come from, firing mindlessly at nothing. It was a wild scene that lasted, maybe, 10 minutes.

When we go to Paris every couple of years now, I rent a car. I drive around the Place de la Concorde and when some French driver blows his horn for me to get out of his way, I just smile and say to myself, "Go ahead, Pierre. Be my guest. I know something about this very place you'll never know."

The French have not earned their right to oppose President Bush's plans to attack Iraq.

On the other hand, I have.

Good memory . . . the original poster edited Rooney (without mentioning it).

 

[Alistar7]

Well obviously the people of France did not want us there if they were shooting at us.... the parrallels are uncanny...

 

[NightTrain]

Originally posted by: Alistar7
Well obviously the people of France did not want us there if they were shooting at us....

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Alistar7
Well obviously the people of France did not want us there if they were shooting at us.... the parrallels are uncanny...

They were probebly shooting at de Gaulle. The French DID want the Americans there - initially . . . now that you mention it, the parallel is not-surprising.

 

[Alistar7]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Alistar7
Well obviously the people of France did not want us there if they were shooting at us.... the parrallels are uncanny...

They were probebly shooting at de Gaulle. The French DID want the Americans there - initially . . . now that you mention it, the parallel is not-surprising.

my point was that nobody remembers the few who might have been holding out and objected to our presence, yet the anti-war crowd used these same few types of dissenters in Baghdad to try and make the point we were not wanted there.....

 

[Judgement]

Originally posted by: LilBlinbBlahIce

Originally posted by: konichiwa
And we owe our 1776 revolution to France, so the score is even. Can we get over this petty schoolyard bickering and move onto some productive world affairs now, please?

Yeah, I mean do we expect them to be indebted to us till the end of time? Come on now. That's the problem with democracy, people can disagree with you. Get over it.

I've said this before, and I guess I need to say it again:

One cannot expect support from France just because we helped them in WWII, but one should expect it from France when looking at the results of the war. What gives France the right to protest a war that will free the Iraqi people; do they already forget that the only reason they have the right to protest is that we helped liberate them from a similar oppressive dictator in WWII? Or that they helped free the US from tyranny and unfair policies in our revolutionary war?

How hypocritical can they be?

 

[LilBlinbBlahIce]

Originally posted by: Judgement

Originally posted by: LilBlinbBlahIce

Originally posted by: konichiwa
And we owe our 1776 revolution to France, so the score is even. Can we get over this petty schoolyard bickering and move onto some productive world affairs now, please?

Yeah, I mean do we expect them to be indebted to us till the end of time? Come on now. That's the problem with democracy, people can disagree with you. Get over it.

I've said this before, and I guess I need to say it again:

One cannot expect support from France just because we helped them in WWII, but one should expect it from France when looking at the results of the war. What gives France the right to protest a war that will free the Iraqi people; do they already forget that the only reason they have the right to protest is that we helped liberate them from a similar oppressive dictator in WWII? Or that they helped free the US from tyranny and unfair policies in our revolutionary war?

How hypocritical can they be?

Maybe so, but like any democracy, they have to respect the will of the people, and the majority of French oppose the war. Also, France has Europe's largest Muslim population. No politician (save Tony Blair) is going to support a war that will pretty much guarantee their defeat in the next election. It would be as though all of America favoured tax cuts but Bush decided to oppose them because it was the "right thing to do" (far fetched example, I know). The point is: politics is politics. Wheter in the US or elsewhere, your're going to play the cards that are going to make you win (the next election).

 

[konichiwa]

Originally posted by: Judgement

Originally posted by: LilBlinbBlahIce

Originally posted by: konichiwa
And we owe our 1776 revolution to France, so the score is even. Can we get over this petty schoolyard bickering and move onto some productive world affairs now, please?

Yeah, I mean do we expect them to be indebted to us till the end of time? Come on now. That's the problem with democracy, people can disagree with you. Get over it.

I've said this before, and I guess I need to say it again:

One cannot expect support from France just because we helped them in WWII, but one should expect it from France when looking at the results of the war. What gives France the right to protest a war that will free the Iraqi people; do they already forget that the only reason they have the right to protest is that we helped liberate them from a similar oppressive dictator in WWII? Or that they helped free the US from tyranny and unfair policies in our revolutionary war?

How hypocritical can they be?

As stunning as this may seem to most unthinkingly nationalistic Americans, just because our Administration says that this war is to liberate Iraq does not mean a) that it is and b) that ANYONE else in the world believes that.

 

[Judgement]

Originally posted by: konichiwa

Originally posted by: Judgement

Originally posted by: LilBlinbBlahIce

Originally posted by: konichiwa
And we owe our 1776 revolution to France, so the score is even. Can we get over this petty schoolyard bickering and move onto some productive world affairs now, please?

Yeah, I mean do we expect them to be indebted to us till the end of time? Come on now. That's the problem with democracy, people can disagree with you. Get over it.

I've said this before, and I guess I need to say it again:

One cannot expect support from France just because we helped them in WWII, but one should expect it from France when looking at the results of the war. What gives France the right to protest a war that will free the Iraqi people; do they already forget that the only reason they have the right to protest is that we helped liberate them from a similar oppressive dictator in WWII? Or that they helped free the US from tyranny and unfair policies in our revolutionary war?

How hypocritical can they be?

As stunning as this may seem to most unthinkingly nationalistic Americans, just because our Administration says that this war is to liberate Iraq does not mean a) that it is and b) that ANYONE else in the world believes that.

I am, for the most part for the war, but anyone who assumes that the US is doing it solely out of the kindness of its heart needs a wake up call... I'm not trying to deny that. What does make me mad is that people would think that what the US might get out of it is worth protesting the war and risk leaving the Iraqi people suppressed. An example: Ok so you are afraid the US might leave a puppet government over the Iraqi people (which I don't think is as likely to happen as many would believe) and you are against that happening, what you should be protesting is not the war. Protesting the war on grounds such as those simply does not make sense... people don't want the Iraqi people under a puppet government ok, but they are failing to look at the bigger picture.

Lets think hypothetically... if the US does infact instate a puppet government, would it be anywhere near as cruel as the former Iraqi government? Would the Iraqi people have more or less freedom under the new government? Would more or less Iraqi people be murdered, raped, and put unjustly into jail for years under the new or former government?

We don't want the US to have control over Iraq's oil, we'd rather have the Iraqi people continue to suffer instead? If you want to protest something, protest the sole involvement of the US in Iraqi politics after the war instead of letting the UN in.... but don't protest the war, it should have been embraced by the US and France who are both no stranger to getting outside help to achieve their freedom.

 

[Bite]

Thanks to Apoppin for posting the corrected Andy Rooney statement. The version I posted was incorrect -- I didn't think to check CBS to see if the version emailed to me was correct...(Duh)....

 

[swifty3]

An interesting note to Rooney's article. In France's defense, it can be said that although they pretty much surrendered to the Germans in a matter of a couple weeks, later in the war when the German navy was taking heavy losses, the French scuttled (sank) their own navy at port so that the Germans couldn't use them against the allies. Pretty bold thing to do. And the french premier during the war who was a total nazi lapdog was hung by the french people immediately following the German surrender.

 

[drewshin]

what was rooney's last line supposed to mean, that he was against the war in iraq? suspicious that the poster edited it out.

it's funny that people say the french are wimps because they surrendered so quickly in WWII, when it was their government that were the wimps...not the people.

just like the iraqi people cannot be called wimps because they never overthrew saddam, it was just something out of their power.