US bashing of Franch irrational
published: Monday | April 14, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I REALLY love the BBC, hats off to them always! I am quite disgusted with the extent of childlike behaviour on exhibition from the American media. As children, five to 10 years old, they are indeed engaging in "tantrum throwing." It is both illogical and immature. It is being touted that the French are an ungrateful lot, simply because, Americans were able to help the French in the rebuilding of their country after World War II. Does this mean that they now have no right to their own opinions and policies? I say simply, (even though it was a significant event) because I remember some of my history and will use it to qualify this statement.
It must be noted that the French in 1778 were the first nation to acknowledge the Americans as a new nation. After the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and the American colonies in 1776 several envoys were sent to France in order to seek help, notably Benjamin Franklyn and Silas Deane among others. By 1777, a first convoy of 14 French ships were dispatched to help the Americans, conveying items of importance such as the much needed clothes, men and other supplies. It is thought that these and other forms of support for the new America contributed to the bankruptcy of the French monarchy and thus to a wider extent the birth and evolution of the French revolution.
The Marques de Lafayette, the first foreign envoy to ever address the American Congress, with his training in the best French military schools came to America on his own to fight for their cause. On August 1,1777, he was appointed, as an unpaid volunteer, a Major General in the Continental Army. He subsequently became one of Washington's ablest officers rendering stalwart service to the fledgling American state. and was subsequently honoured. Why didn't they send him back like recent hoodlums have expressed they would like to do to some French citizens?
On April 30,1803, the Louisiana Purchase treaty was concluded. The sale of this huge track of land by France to the USA under Napoleon Bonaparte more than doubled the size of US sovereign territory. This extended the new country from the Mississippi to the Rockies and subsequently opened another large land mass through to the east coast and California. We may as well rename this transaction the, "Freedom Purchase."
This irrational bashing of the French as ungrateful is clearly a case of "bully ragging". The seeming inability to understand the French decision on moral and other grounds, to disagree with the American policies is very trite. This situation is the epitome of "pork barrel politics" and unlike the Jamaican scenario, where the pork is given just before the election, it now seems that we must all better beware. After all, up to 50-plus years after they might still demand your vote. You are, yes, still indebted! What, conduct of a so-called mature press in a mature society?
