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Forget about them. If you get the drift of Patrick Cabouat and the French state TV, the real story about these guys was their "hidden face" of rapists and murderers.
How France3 “Celebrated” 9/11
A correspondent writes: This is at least the third airing of this documentary. (...) one airing I remember in particular was around the D-Day anniversary of 2005, when the MSM emphasized the brotherhood of French and German veterans, how the allied bombed French cities, (...)
The TV guide notes: ”The Hidden Face of the Liberators” - (rerun) A documentary by Patrick Cabouat. (...) liberators who were meant to liberate Europe from Nazism raped or killed French, British, and German citizens in 1944 and 45. The recent opening of legal archives permitted us to see something that would otherwise remain a secret.
Our view: this documentary is a poignant testimony of the acts of atrocities of soldier welcomed as liberators.
Of course, by "soldiers welcomed as liberators" they don't really mean anyone in the uniform of the glorious Red Army(1) (well, they couldn't possibly rape British citizens that's for sure.) — do I really have to draw you a picture?
A bit of context is required here:
NP's correspondent's memory probably fails him, as this "documentary" was released on March 2006 — still I did hear about it being aired around a D-Day anniversary (most likely 2006).
There's only four national TV channels in France (at least last time you could find me dozing in front of the French idiot box). Three out of the four are state owned and run. The remaining one, TF1, simply "follow the recommendations" (if it wants to keep its license, it better be) despite all Gallic delusions about its independence.
France 3, who apparently can't get enough spitting on G.I. Joe's grave, is one of the national State TV channel. Not some plug-ugly Parisian twat webcasting his bile from his living-room. A French state TV. Keep that in mind next time you feel all funny in the knees because Sarkozy shows you l'amour.
This rerun on September 11 fulfills multiple functions, like demonstrating ostensibly how little this country cares about 9/11, and adding more material to the rewriting of WWII's history in Europe — downplaying and soiling les Anglo-Saxons' central role and achievements in the affair — a trend that's been gathering speed for the last 5 years or so. It is also time sensitive, and follows the recent anti-American army fest and standing ovation slimy Old Europe offered to Hollywood has-been De Palma.
For the French state TV, it's really not enough to blather that US soldiers are a bunch of rapists and murderers nowadays — one has to make the claim they've always been so.
And rerun it again and again, until it sticks.
Edited: not 4 but 5 national TV channels - I forgot about the trendy neo-Marxist hack called Canal+, an allegedly private venture that could never make a profit and keeps being saved from bankruptcy with generous taxpayers' "grants". Gosh, I so do not care about French TV...
Edited again: Make it 6, as I forgot another one. I think that's all now. Told you I didn't care about it, didn't I?
Comments
Comments thread (13)
2681 - TooTall
TooTall Utah
Amazing. Tthe more I read your Blog the more my blood pressure rises. Can I send you my doctor bills? Seriously, the French media has reached an all time low with this one. Thanks for the heads-up.
2682 - Valerie, Texas
Valerie, Texas
Almost speecheless with anger.
My father was in WWII, in Patton's army. From North Africa to the Battle of the Bulge.
President Reagan considered bringing the boys home, but decided against it. Wish he had. I would help if it ever was decided to do so. Dig with my bare hands if need be. For it is only a matter of time till these quiet graves are defaced and destroyed. If their sacrifice is no longer remembered or appreciated NOW, imagine in a decade or so?
The next time, and there will be a "next time" France, not one U.S. soldier to your shore. NOT ONE, to lie in your cursed ground from having died to free you from your oppressors. Since you didn't want to free others around the world, why the hell should we free you?
2683 - HeckBoy
HeckBoy Auburn, AL USA
In 1997 I interviewed for a job with Hewlett Packard in Lyon, France. The countryside and the city were beautiful. I'd been warned about how rude the French could be but the only problem I had was with the cabbie, who was mad at me when he was the one who got lost (that, in fact, may be a great example of what's wrong). Jean-Yves was in charge of getting me to my meetings and lunch. I made the comment about the price of gasoline being so astronomically high and his response was a big thumbs up as he proclaimed "it's the best!".
My uncle parachuted into France on D-Day. He never talked about what happened - he would just clam up and get real quiet if you asked him about it. All this makes me want to go read French history and try to find out how they came to this point of being, on the one hand, so proud of their culture while on the other so willing - almost begging - to have it trampled by their oppressors. Too much has been done by others to protect the French and preserve their land.
I have a feeling that if I do study French history, I'll find that the problems started with a small group of people who gained more and more power over a long period of time, gaining in size and volume, slowly building a following based on the beliefs that goverment will take care of you and that goverment should be allowed to make your decisions for you and that the income you earn is to feed the government, and that you shouldn't be held responsible for your actions, and that you really don't have to work if you don't want to as long as enough of the others are willing to help feed you, and that nothing is worth fighting for when appeasement will do the trick...
Hey... Wait a minute!
2684 - floridasuzie
floridasuzie Florida
>"I have a feeling that if I do study French history, I'll find that the problems started with a small group of people who gained more and more power over a long period of time, gaining in size and volume, slowly building a following based on the beliefs that goverment will take care of you and that goverment should be allowed to make your decisions for you and that the income you earn is to feed the government, and that you shouldn't be held responsible for your actions, and that you really don't have to work if you don't want to as long as enough of the others are willing to help feed you, and that nothing is worth fighting for when appeasement will do the trick…
Hey... Wait a minute!"<
CobaltBeret, I think you hit the nail on the head. "Dem Rats" been around a long time - a donkey by any other name is still a rat ;)
Suzie
2685 - Grimmy
Grimmy Where I'm at.
The French put much effort and energy in portraying themselves as the enemy of the US. They have done so since the French slaughtered their former ruling class in that blood frenzy of a revolution.
Someday, we in the US will finally decide to treat the French in the manner that they have been demanding for so many long years.
2686 - Chris
Chris
You may recall what General Pershing said when the AEF arrived in France, “Lafayette we are here!". And you may recall what General Eisenhower said when he arrived in France “Twice, that's it.”
But you also have to remember what DeGaul said to President Eisehower, when the Russians were screaming at us because they finally shot down a U2. DeGaul said "We are with you." We owe you guys.
I have a friend that drives me nuts. We have passed money back and forth so that even God doesn't know who owes who. And he is there for me when I or my sons need him.
We'll be there for you next time too.
Chris
2687 - 2hotel9
2hotel9 Western Pennsylvania
Has not French media, print and broadcast, already done the same to the soldats of their own nation? Marxist cultural de-construction is an honored tradition in European media of all nationalies. Is not Theater of the Cynical unique to France? Pre-dating both wars? There is a certain self destructive impulse in all humans. That is really the defining issue in the world today. The very crux of the matter.
2688 - 2hotel9
2hotel9 Western Pennsylvania
CB, this national malaise can be traced back to WWI. As with England, Belgium, and Germany, vast numbers of men died. This had a profound effect on the character and national identity of all the major combatants in Europe. During the same period, and for 30-40 years before, Marxist Socialism was quite envoque. It has left its spoor on several generations of university professors, civil servants, elementary school teachers, and newsroom editors.
2690 - bonmotdot
bonmotdot
I fear that the only thing that gives France any dignity anymore is that the bones of America's sons lie in her soil.
2692 - the dissident frogman
the dissident frogman France
Chris,
Yes, I remember all that. I also remember that de Gaulle demanded that he be given independent authority over U.S nuclear weapons stationed in France, prompting him to give America the boot when Johnson refused (giving you a year to relocate 70,000 personnel and 400 bases - in operation FRELOC [fast relocation], or as one French put it to me to other day with a big grin: operation get the f* out of here. Many of them are still gloating over that.)
It was also de Gaulle who conceived and actually coined the expression describing France's nuclear strategy of deterrence "de tous azimuths" - meaning that French nuclear weapons were to be used and positioned to deter attacks from all directions, including the USA.
And the old bastard meant it, as unlike Sarkozy, he'd managed to do as he said...
You may also want to remember that among many things de Gaulle said, we find his first reaction when he learned about the Allied invasion of North Africa, and the US disaster in the harbor of Oran — when the French troops under Petain's command put the only determined resistance to the Allied landing in North Africa, resulting in 90% casualties on the Allied side, including 307 dead. It goes like this: "Well, I hope the people of Vichy throw them into the sea. You can't break into France and get away with it."
Some friend, huh?