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January 26, 2013
French Troops Push Further Into Mali, Desperately Try To Surrender
“It’s been my dream since I was a little boy in Nice to one day join the Army and surrender to a foreign force — like my father at Dien Bien Phu, and my grandfather to the German tank that drove into our garden.” -- | The Duffel Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at January 26, 2013 11:26 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
Ah, the Duffle Blog strikes again. Actually, the French appear to be kicking some Islamist butt down in Mali. May they continue to do so.
Posted by: waltj at January 23, 2013 8:23 PM
The French are trying to knock the Mohammaddens back. I don't have it in me to make surrender jokes. It's also worth noting the French army took 100,000 casualties in the rear-guard action which allowed Dunkirk to happen.
Posted by: Mike James at January 23, 2013 9:45 PM
Apparently, Sergeant Martin's family has some unusual generational spreads. Seeing as how the Battle of France happened in 1940, and Dien Bien Phu happened in 1954 -- that would mean his father is 60 years older than he is while his granfather is only 15 years older than his father
Posted by: Callmelenie at January 24, 2013 6:41 AM
The French get something of a bad rap, in my view. Yes, they collapsed in a month against the Nazis, and badly underestimated the Vietminh, leading to the disaster at Dien Bien Phu, but they fought the Kaiser to a standstill for four years at terrible cost, and inflicted enormous losses on the victorious Prussians 45 years before that. (High command was a French weakness in both the Franco-Prussian War and WW1; the soldiers, when led well, fought well). Then there was Napoleon, and having Lafayette on our side didn't hurt our efforts in the Revolution. So the French have had their ups and downs militarily, but taking the long view of history, they hold their own.
@Callmelenie: You do know that the Duffle Blog is a satire site, right? Think "The Onion" with a military slant.
Posted by: waltj at January 24, 2013 10:39 AM
They only surrender to the Muslims in France.
Posted by: Jewel at January 24, 2013 2:53 PM
True enough Jewel. But that's a French political failure, not a military one. And they have lots of company in Europe on that particular score.
Posted by: waltj at January 24, 2013 8:07 PM
WaltJ, I was in the Army for a four year hitch, so I picked up on the fact that the Duffel Bag was satire pretty quickly (and pretty good satire to boot) You'd have to be pretty dense not to.
Posted by: Callmelennie at January 25, 2013 9:06 AM
@Callmelennie: no offense intended, but when you started parsing "SGT Martin's" lineage there, I wasn't so sure. I'll know better now.
Posted by: waltj at January 25, 2013 9:53 AM