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Re: How Do You Say "Go Fu*K Yourself" in French? To the French Ambassador? [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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The best things about the French are their fries and toast.:)

I can't figure out how to get lavendar using my phone.
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Re: How Do You Say "Go Fu*K Yourself" in French? To the French Ambassador? [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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They didn't need artillery because of "audacity". They didn't need logistical support because "audacity




L'audace, l'audace. Toujours l'audace.



( 6 years French in Oz HS --= take that ! )

RayGovett
Hughson CA
Be Prepared-- Strike Swiftly -- Who Dares Wins- Without warning-"it will be hard. I can do it"
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Re: How Do You Say "Go Fu*K Yourself" in French? To the French Ambassador? [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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In terms of appeasement, it is worth remembering that just 20 years earlier Britain and France between them had lost well over 2 million casualties out of a combined population of 80 million at the time. That's about 6% of the male population, must be getting on for 20% of 18 to 30 year olds. That's going to have a pretty big impact on your appetite for another war, and in Britain's case they've always been reluctant to get involved in land wars in Europe unless they really need to anyway.
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Re: How Do You Say "Go Fu*K Yourself" in French? To the French Ambassador? [cartsman] [ In reply to ]
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cartsman wrote:
In terms of appeasement, it is worth remembering that just 20 years earlier Britain and France between them had lost well over 2 million casualties out of a combined population of 80 million at the time. That's about 6% of the male population, must be getting on for 20% of 18 to 30 year olds. That's going to have a pretty big impact on your appetite for another war, and in Britain's case they've always been reluctant to get involved in land wars in Europe unless they really need to anyway.
That's fair. Folks pitch on Chamberlain for appeasement but he accurately represented the feelings of the Brits (and the French). The incredible casualties of WW1 had turned the huge optimism of the Victorian age, into something gray and despondent. The appeasement was not Chamberlain's fault. The Brit and French people had their hearts ripped out by WW1. They were desperate to prevent another conflict.

But when I think of appeasement, I think of the Brits and French failing to stand up to the Germans when they started breaking treaties re. re-armament, or occupied the Czech Sudatenland. The options for the Brits and French, in those situations were not great. Invade Germany because the Germans were (deniably?) rebuilding their military? Or for the Sudatenland, attack all the way across Germany in an attempt to kick the Germans out of Czech? These were both terrible options.

But the Rhineland was different, I'd argue. The French, if they'd really wanted to, could have in 24hrs, put 10x as many troops into the Rhineland as the Germans had. It was a complicated period tho. I'm sure, in the academic world, there's lots of conflicting ideas.

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"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart
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Re: How Do You Say "Go Fu*K Yourself" in French? To the French Ambassador? [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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Most war historians believe that had Britain and France acted in concert militarily several years before 1939 they probably would have been able to quickly back Hitler down and prevent Germany from annexing the Sudetenland and then invading Poland, providing the Brits and the French key time needed to more sufficiently rearm and forestall or even completely prevent Germany's march through Western Europe.

But as others have pointed out, the horrors of WWI were still fresh on the minds of many leaders in both countries -- and abhorrence and fear of another war may have prevented cold-eyed thinking about its possibility. Militarism had also been part of the German character -- owing partly to its Prussian heritage -- for many decades and centuries, and was no new thing on the Continent, so their rearming wasn't exactly a surprise.

In certain respects, leadership in Britain even sympathized somewhat with Germany, believing that the Treaty of Versailles -- which France insisted on enforcing strenuously when it came to war reparations and such -- had laid too onerous a burden on the German nation.

No one had ever seen a person like Adolf Hitler, though. He was the proverbial monkey wrench in the works and Europe outside of Germany wasn't prepared emotionally or intellectually for the former Austrian corporal and what his coming presaged.

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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