rz350 said:
Making fun people who bled and died along our own troops in the great war? 4,266,000 of them bled and 1,397,800 of them died fighting the same fight and the same enemy as our troops.
Yes, they died. They also mutinied in 1917 and put, essentially, the entire burden of
attacking* the Germans on to the British (including Canadian) forces. There would be fewer crosses in our war cemeteries had the French fought the whole war with us – it was, after all, their war in the first bloody place.
The problem is
not the courage or integrity of the French people – they have both in exactly the same proportion as Afghans, Bulgarians, Canadians, Danes, etc, etc. The problem is that France’s
political culture – since about the 14th century – has been headed, almost consistently, in a ‘perverse’ direction.
For a variety of reasons – 500+ year old reasons, in many cases – France has adopted a highly centralized,
statist political culture and it has, consistently, led the French to make serious
strategic misjudgements. I would argue that the last time the French got their strategy right was during the Hundred Years War! While I celebrate Napoleon as a brilliant field commander and a pretty fair despot/emperor/civil administrator he was,
in my not at all humble opinion a
strategic nincompoop who failed, utterly, to understand his own (continental) or the British (maritime) strategies and why the latter could not help but overcome the former, as implemented.
In the 19th century the French made a tragic error and institutionalized the (Napoleonic) idea that there exists a self perpetuating
elite which can be selected, educated and mentored so as to be able to manage the affairs of France and, by extension, the world.
I believe that the
grandes écoles have seriously weakened French strategic decision making for more than 100 years – but, despite having their graduates at the centre of a depressing series of French strategic failures – including abject surrender – they are much admired.
French leadership reached and then maintained its nadir in the 20th century. I see no signs that it will improve any time soon. In fairness, British leadership, in the Edwardian era, was equally weak: signing the
entente cordialewith France (1904) must go down as Britain’s greatest strategic blunder in over 500 years.
France is neither Canada’s friend nor even a trustworthy ally. It is the only country since 1945 to attack Canada’s sovereignty directly.
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* The French did not abandon their trenches – they just refused to undertake offensive operations.