Happy Quatorze Juillet,France and America!

France is more tightly entwined with the US than many Americans would care to admit. I have always maintained the most important war was the series of wars on this continent we call the "French and Indian wars". Think on how different things would be if France had won those wars.Goodbye English "as she is spoke", 'alo Francais! Welcome Napoleonic Code (when the wee Corsican arrives on the world stage), au revoir Common Law, Magna Carta, and all that.

And for aiding us during the latter bits of our revolution, merci, France. She didn't act out of kindness, more as a thumb in England's eye than anything else, I imagine. Motivation regardless, we as a nation owe France our gratitude for her help.

"Blackjack" Pershing probably thought the debt was re-paid when his aide said,"Lafayette, we are here" in 1917. A more monstrous enemy arose in 1939, and in 1944 American troops were once again " over fed, over paid, and over there".

The relationship between France and the United States has sometimes been problematic post war. Americans seem to think our allies have to think exactly like us. Wrong answer, Bubba. As I wrote in a reply to the editor of the local weekly rag when they published an anti-French cartoon, France chose to sit out Iraq.2 for reasons of her own, after willingly jumping in for Iraq.1. All the blockheaded legislation to change "French fries" to "freedom fries" (they are Belgian anyways) and other absurdities will not change history. And, to you pinheads who call the French "cheese eating surrender monkeys", remember the words of The Old Guard when called upon to surrender at Waterloo:Merde!.
Vive la France!