(12-10-2020, 12:51 PM)Rodinus Wrote: With all due respects to your posts Nin mate, I would like to suggest that you take one step backwards for the following :
I am ex Brit army lad living in France for nigh on 30 years.
I am a Brit and my 22 year old son is French and is a French solider with the commandos of the French Alpine hunters (13th regiment of "chasseurs Alpins"
He has served and is still serving as a sharp shooter in many active situations right now (especially Mali)
The French white flag situation concerning the Vichy situation was over 70 years ago.
Give it a FUCKING break mate... your comments are sad and disinfo as to the current situation 70 fucking years later with the French army.
Use tour friend "google" and se how the French army rank nowadays....?
Your uneducated commente where not cool mate.
Respects.
Rodinus
My thougts... full stop.
I suppose it could be the case that politicians are making poor use of the military there and tying it's hands beyond reason. I know that has frequently been an issue with the US military. At one time, France was a world class superpower, challenging both the British Empire and Spain. Then, after the Revolution there, the Napoleonic debacle, and of course the Vichy disaster you mention in your post, Things seem to have been on a downward spiral. It's hard to believe the quality of the individual soldier declined that much during that time, because people are people and tend to remain fairly similar from age to age, So it seems the fault may lie with the political leadership rather than with any intrinsic qualities of the military itself.
If that is the case, and it does appear to be, then I stand corrected.
France also seems to be blurring the lines between "police" and "military", which is also a problem in the US, and has been for some time - a few decades now. No good can come of that. It not only pumps up the police beyond their remit, it also wears down the military beneath their actual capabilities.
A few decades ago, when I was still dealing with military matters regularly, the Legion Etrangere was the only French military subdivision of note, and at that time there were jokes about that, too. But, as you point out, times change, and that may no longer be the case. You don't hear much about them at all any more, so they may have been eclipsed by the native military over that interval.
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Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’