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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: headhuntersix on November 23, 2008, 07:21:01 PM
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I found this and had to post based on a good debate about who has or had the best military.
American troops in Afghanistan through the eyes of a French OMLT infantryman
The US often hears echoes of worldwide hostility against the application of its foreign policy, but seldom are they reached by the voices of those who experience first hand how close we are to the USA. In spite of contextual political differences and conflicting interests that generate friction, we do share the same fundamental values - and when push comes to shove that is what really counts. Through the eyes of that French OMLT (Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams) infantryman you can see how strong the bond is on the ground. In contrast with the Americans, the French soldiers don’t seem to write much online - or maybe the proportion is the same but we just have less people deployed. Whatever the reason, this is a rare and moving testimony which is why I decided to translate it into English, so that American people can catch a glimpse of the way European soldiers see them. Not much high philosophy here, just the first hand impressions of a soldier in contact - but that only makes it more authentic.
Here is the original French article, and here is my translation :
“We have shared our daily life with two US units for quite a while - they are the first and fourth companies of a prestigious infantry battalion whose name I will withhold for the sake of military secrecy. To the common man it is a unit just like any other. But we live with them and got to know them, and we henceforth know that we have the honor to live with one of the most renowned units of the US Army - one that the movies brought to the public as series showing “ordinary soldiers thrust into extraordinary events”. Who are they, those soldiers from abroad, how is their daily life, and what support do they bring to the men of our OMLT every day ? Few of them belong to the Easy Company, the one the TV series focuses on. This one nowadays is named Echo Company, and it has become the support company.
They have a terribly strong American accent - from our point of view the language they speak is not even English. How many times did I have to write down what I wanted to say rather than waste precious minutes trying various pronunciations of a seemingly common word? Whatever state they are from, no two accents are alike and they even admit that in some crisis situations they have difficulties understanding each other.
Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and creatine - they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them - we are wimps, even the strongest of us - and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans.
Here we discover America as it is often depicted : their values are taken to their paroxysm, often amplified by promiscuity lack of privacy and the loneliness of this outpost in the middle of that Afghan valley. Honor, motherland - everything here reminds of that : the American flag floating in the wind above the outpost, just like the one on the post parcels. Even if recruits often originate from the hearth of American cities and gang territory, no one here has any goal other than to hold high and proud the star spangled banner. Each man knows he can count on the support of a whole people who provides them through the mail all that an American could miss in such a remote front-line location : books, chewing gums, razorblades, Gatorade, toothpaste etc. in such way that every man is aware of how much the American people backs him in his difficult mission. And that is a first shock to our preconceptions : the American soldier is no individualist. The team, the group, the combat team are the focus of all his attention.
And they are impressive warriors ! We have not come across bad ones, as strange at it may seem to you when you know how critical French people can be. Even if some of them are a bit on the heavy side, all of them provide us everyday with lessons in infantry know-how. Beyond the wearing of a combat kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to annoy them in the slightest. On the one square meter wooden tower above the perimeter wall they stand the five consecutive hours in full battle rattle and night vision goggles on top, their sight unmoving in the directions of likely danger. No distractions, no pauses, they are like statues nights and days. At night, all movements are performed in the dark - only a handful of subdued red lights indicate the occasional presence of a soldier on the move. Same with the vehicles whose lights are covered - everything happens in pitch dark even filling the fuel tanks with the Japy pump.
And combat ? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all - always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay. That is one of their tricks : they switch from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the ennemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting : they just charge ! They disembark and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions later - which cuts any pussyfooting short.
We seldom hear any harsh word, and from 5 AM onwards the camp chores are performed in beautiful order and always with excellent spirit. A passing American helicopter stops near a stranded vehicle just to check that everything is alright; an American combat team will rush to support ours before even knowing how dangerous the mission is - from what we have been given to witness, the American soldier is a beautiful and worthy heir to those who liberated France and Europe.
To those who bestow us with the honor of sharing their combat outposts and who everyday give proof of their military excellence, to those who pay the daily tribute of America’s army’s deployment on Afghan soil, to those we owned this article, ourselves hoping that we will always remain worthy of them and to always continue hearing them say that we are all the same band of brothers”.
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I always found the French troops very friendly and always waved when we came across them.
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I've heard that the French were absolutely terrible to American troops when WWII ended.
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I've heard that the French were absolutely terrible to American troops when WWII ended.
Should have made Europe a new state in the US 8)
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But we live with them and got to know them,
Nothing but "Helsinki Syndrome" in action. :P
What is the link to this stupendous tome?
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Nothing but "Helsinki Syndrome" in action. :P
What is the link to this stupendous tome?
American soldiers are the finest citizens we have. I would give 500 Pelosi's & Murtha's up for one GI.
The succeed despite our disgusting Congress, not because of it.
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I have worked alot with French troops. They have always been good soldiers and hard working.
As for the general public of France hmmmm not so much.
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Very flattering article. I have no doubts that much of this is true of the soldiers he served along side with.
The vast majority of men and women in the US military are honorable hard working professional soldiers. We are the best equiped, best trained force on earth.
That being said, I wouldn't go as far to say that they:
American soldiers are the finest citizens we have. I would give 500 Pelosi's & Murtha's up for one GI.
The succeed despite our disgusting Congress, not because of it.
I would say some of the best citizens we have are in the military as well as many other walks of life including the US congress. ;D
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Very flattering article. I have no doubts that much of this is true of the soldiers he served along side with.
The vast majority of men and women in the US military are honorable hard working professional soldiers. We are the best equiped, best trained force on earth.
That being said, I wouldn't go as far to say that they:
I would say some of the best citizens we have are in the military as well as many other walks of life including the US congress. ;D
Disagree.
Pelosi, Murtha, Stevens, Rangle, Barney Frank, Thomas "Cold Cash" Jefferson, and the rest of those bums are horrible.
That is why I favor strict term limits.
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Disagree.
Pelosi, Murtha, Stevens, Rangle, Barney Frank, Thomas "Cold Cash" Jefferson, and the rest of those bums are horrible.
That is why I favor strict term limits.
No different than some of the bums on the other side including comrade BUSH.
I'm with you on term limits
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No different than some of the bums on the other side including comrade BUSH.
I'm with you on term limits
Absolutely - Arlen Spector, McLame, and the other older than dirt has beens need to go.
GWB has become Damien thorn in his second term. I also think he is heavily drinking again.
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Nothing but "Helsinki Syndrome" in action. :P
What is the link to this stupendous tome?
How's America's hat doing....
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Very flattering article. I have no doubts that much of this is true of the soldiers he served along side with.
The vast majority of men and women in the US military are honorable hard working professional soldiers. We are the best equiped, best trained force on earth.
That being said, I wouldn't go as far to say that they:
I would say some of the best citizens we have are in the military as well as many other walks of life including the US congress. ;D
The goals they work toward however, are not so honourable or noble. :-\
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The goals they work toward however, are not so honourable or noble. :-\
I agree from a POV.
Afghanistan i believe was noble, Iraq not. Doesn't change the soldiers.
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I agree from a POV.
Afghanistan i believe was noble, Iraq not. Doesn't change the soldiers.
How so?
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How so?
Perhaps "noble" is the wrong word. There's nothing noble about war.
Justified.
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The goals they work toward however, are not so honourable or noble. :-\
Iraq was a gamble that initially paid off, but in the long run has cost us a lot.
Saddam and Bush both played poker. Saddam lost in the short term by being hung to death, but the US is losing as far as $$$$ goes.
However, the truth is that he have not been hit from 9/11 on, regardless of whether Iraq had or did not have anything to do with 9/11 itself.
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Iraq was a gamble that initially paid off, but in the long run has cost us a lot.
Saddam and Bush both played poker. Saddam lost in the short term by being hung to death, but the US is losing as far as $$$$ goes.
However, the truth is that he have not been hit from 9/11 on, regardless of whether Iraq had or did not have anything to do with 9/11 itself.
That's a scary justification using logic. One doesn't have anything to do with the other. Especially when you factor in how easy it still is now to commit a massive terrorist act (non suicide) in this country.
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That's a scary justification using logic. One doesn't have anything to do with the other. Especially when you factor in how easy it still is now to commit a massive terrorist act (non suicide) in this country.
What's your logic behind it being "easy" to commit a massive terrorist act in our country? If this were the case, we would have been subject to more than one attack since 9/11. We haven't. Methinks it isn't as easy as you say it is, unless you think Al Qaeda and co. don't want to attack us for whatever reason.
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What's your logic behind it being "easy" to commit a massive terrorist act in our country? If this were the case, we would have been subject to more than one attack since 9/11. We haven't. Methinks it isn't as easy as you say it is, unless you think Al Qaeda and co. don't want to attack us for whatever reason.
Its a fact. For a few thousand dollars anyone can virtually halt air traffic again for at least 1 day if not a few days several different ways. Easy as pie.
And it is the case. no denying it. so what does that mean? that means our efforts have been successful. the threat is still there but not nearly what its made out to be.
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That's a scary justification using logic. One doesn't have anything to do with the other. Especially when you factor in how easy it still is now to commit a massive terrorist act (non suicide) in this country.
I dont agree with you. After 9/11, the idea was to confront terrorists of all stripes wherever they existed, and Saddam was a huge terrorist and supported international terrorism. There is ZERO dispute over that.
He made it seems as though he did have WMD, the entire world thought he had WMD, and he did nothing to dissaude anyone from that, and he lost.
I was not against Iraq, and thought we did great the first year, it was the linfering aftermath with no real plan which was the major problem with that.
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After 9/11, the idea was to confront terrorists of all stripes wherever they existed,
Except pakistan.
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I dont agree with you. After 9/11, the idea was to confront terrorists of all stripes wherever they existed, and Saddam was a huge terrorist and supported international terrorism. There is ZERO dispute over that.
He made it seems as though he did have WMD, the entire world thought he had WMD, and he did nothing to dissaude anyone from that, and he lost.
I was not against Iraq, and thought we did great the first year, it was the linfering aftermath with no real plan which was the major problem with that.
That wasn't the idea and we didn't anything of the sort. Otherwise we should have invaded dam near the entire middle east.
BUSH and company saw an opportunity to justify invading Iraq and establishing a lorn term presence in securing area resources and he took it.
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Except pakistan.
We thought Musharaff was a lesser evil than allowing that country to collapse due to the nuclear situation.
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That wasn't the idea and we didn't anything of the sort. Otherwise we should have invaded dam near the entire middle east.
BUSH and company saw an opportunity to justify invading Iraq and establishing a lorn term presence in securing area resources and he took it.
And so did Kerry, Hillary, et al.
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We thought Musharaff was a lesser evil than allowing that country to collapse due to the nuclear situation.
Musharraf + Bin Laden + all the Al q who chose to live there?
I guess 'follow them to the gates of hell' should have an asterisk.
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And so did Kerry, Hillary, et al.
doesn't change the fact it was wrong. If Clinton had been in charge and did the same thing BUSh did with Iraq I'd say the same thing.
wrong is wrong.
Just because a certain bunch votes doesn't make it right. Those whores voted that way because it would have been near political suicide not to. It only showed the everyone how spineless they are.