Tag: France

The Vietnam War: The First Time

It is June and time for a look back into the shadows of history.

On this day the last French troops leave Algeria……in 1964…but before that defeat the French tasted defeat earlier…..in a spot called French IndoChina…..

As a Vietnam veteran I was always interested in how we, Americans, became the fighters of this conflict.  Reading the history of Vietnam you see that the country has been a battlefield for damn near a thousand years.

But what interested me the most was the involvement after WW2…..when control of Vietnam returned to the French……

America’s involvement in Vietnam from early 60’s to mid 70’s was not the first time Vietnam was a major battlefield….a conflict between the West and the East…….

After World War Two the communist in Vietnam started a war for control against the French…who were supported by the West most notably the US………..

In the late 1940s, the French struggled to control its colonies in Indochina – Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Despite financial assistance from the United States, nationalist uprisings against French colonial rule began to take their toll. On May 7, 1954, the French-held garrison at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam fell after a four month siege led by Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh. After the fall of Dien Bien Phu, the French pulled out of the region. Concerned about regional instability, the United States became increasingly committed to countering communist nationalists in Indochina.

Dien Bien Phu…a fascinating battle in so many ways.

With the First Indochina War going poorly for the French, Premier Rene Mayer dispatched General Henri Navarre to take command in May 1953.

Arriving in Hanoi, Navarre found that no long-term plan existed for defeating the Viet Minh and that French forces simply reacted to the enemy’s moves. Believing that he was also tasked with defending neighboring Laos, Navarre sought an effective method for interdicting Viet Minh supply lines through the region. Working with Colonel Louis Berteil, the “hedgehog” concept was developed which called for French troops to establish fortified camps near Viet Minh supply routes.

Supplied by air, the hedgehogs would allow French troops to block the Viet Minh’s supplies, compelling them to fall back. The concept was largely based on the French success at the Battle of Na San in late 1952. Holding the high ground around a fortified camp at Na San, French forces had repeatedly beaten back assaults by General Vo Nguyen Giap’s Viet Minh troops. Navarre believed that the approach used at Na San could be enlarged to force the Viet Minh to commit to a large, pitched battle where superior French firepower could destroy Giap’s army.

https://www.thoughtco.com/battle-of-dien-bien-phu-2361343

Arrogance and stupidity lost this battle for the French which in turn basically lost Vietnam for France……about here enter the US and its advisers and as they say  we all know the outcome of that move.

And apparently we learned nothing from the French or our own experience.

Arrogance and stupidity…..sound familiar?

France And The Middle East

I have a degree in Middle East Studies and Conflict Management….but my interests first were ignited by movies like Beau Geste and Lawrence of Arabia and then my trips through the Middle East…..

In all that time what suck in my brain was France’s involve in desert warfare by trying to subjugate the tribes of North Africa…..and in doing so should have learned how to fight a desert war more so than most other nations…..

A paper that I recently read on France’s place in this region of the world……

  • The Middle East is a key stage for France’s foreign policy, one where it bids to prove its credentials as an international power, punching above its weight and demonstrating the independence that is so important to the French sense of place in the world.
  • In this context, the Arab uprisings and their subsequent upheavals have been a particular challenge, to such an extent that France attempted to recalibrate its strategy. Despite this, France soon settled back into its traditional realism by adopting an approach based on “reassurance”.
  • Under this approach, France sought to foster stability by reassuring its partners against their perceived anxiety in the face of domestic instability, regional changes, and international uncertainties. But “reassurance” did not deliver and France still faces key challenges in the region.
  • France also feels increasingly ‘alone in the desert’, with little European support. Even with armed conflicts, terrorism, and migration flows across the region, France has failed to rally its European partners around strategic purpose.
  • Emmanuel Macron’s ardent pro-Europeanism presents an opportunity for France, and for Europe. But France must move on from its “reassurance” approach and better embed its leadership in concerted European cooperation.

http://www.ecfr.eu/publications/summary/alone_in_the_desert_how_france_can_lead_europe_in_the_middle_east

We here in the States hear a lot about what Great Britain is doing and possibly to a lesser extent what Germany is doing but we hear very little of France and its foreign policies…..

I think that if we are to work all aspects of the situation then we need to know what all players are doing….it is the only way for success.

Closing Thought–15Dec17

Most everyone knows that the US has been stuck in Afghanistan for almost 17 years now….and it appears that another western nation will follow in our footsteps.

France followed in our footsteps back in the 1700’s and had a revolution that got rid of a monarchy and brought about democracy and liberty….although their transition was are violent than ours….but 5 years ago they took upon themselves to go to Mali to fight terrorists  and now they are stuck…or so it would seem…..

In a recent editorial in Le Monde, French journalist Christophe Ayad draws disturbing parallels between the French military operations in Mali — which will reach their five-year mark in January — and America’s involvement in Afghanistan. At first glance the comparison is compelling, and in some important ways, accurate. Yet these two interventions present some fundamental differences that make the Afghanistan case likely more intractable than Mali’s, and give reason for optimism in France.

Ayad’s argument relates to the course of the wars and the apparent bind in which the American and French militaries now find themselves. Ayad observes that in both cases a lightning offensive gave way to a grinding counter-insurgency. In neither case can one now discern an alternative to continuing indefinitely to pay in blood and treasure to prop up governments that frequently act in ways contrary to good sense or good strategy. One can, in fact, blame those governments, as many critics do, but Ayad insists on Western militaries’ fundamental inability to do what they’re being asked to do in countries like Afghanistan and Mali. They have, he argues, neither “the mandate, the vocation, nor, finally, the qualifications for reconstructing the States in which they are intervening.” They “no longer know what to do” and have to choose between hunkering down in bunkers to prevent useless losses while becoming an army of occupation, or conducting raids to intimidate the enemy but risk accidents and ambushes like that which took the life lives of four American soldiers in Niger in October. Winning “hearts and minds” through civil-military engagements is supposed to be a third option, but, Ayad asserts, this is not really the job of soldiers, “as we saw in Afghanistan, where dozens of billions of dollars were spent for nothing.”

https://warontherocks.com/2017/12/mali-is-frances-afghanistan-but-with-a-difference/

Hopefully the French will not have to endure the decades of war….they did that back in the 50-650’s and it ended their overseas colonies for good.

That be it for me and my pen…..the that writes moves on and so shall I…..see you guys tomorrow hopefully it will be  better day….chuq

Reign Of Terror

Last month, July, the French celebrated their Bastille Day, their equivalent to our Independence Day.  They threw off the yoke of the monarchy and set about forming a republic.

After their storming of the Bastille there is little knowledge of what followed….few know of the Reign of Terror but few understand what it was or who was the leader….

I can help with that…..Robespierre was his name and terror was his game.

Maximilien Robespierre has always provoked strong feelings. For the English he is the ‘sea-green incorruptible’ portrayed by Carlyle, the repellent figure at the head of the Revolution, who sent thousands of people to their death under the guillotine. The French, for the most part, dislike his memory still more. There is no national monument to him, though many of the revolutionaries have had statues raised to them. Robespierre is still considered beyond the pale; only one rather shabby metro station in a poorer suburb of Paris bears his name.

Although Robespierre, like most of the revolutionaries, was a bourgeois, he identified with the cause of the urban workers, the sans-culottes as they came to be known, and became a spokesman for them. It is for this reason that he came to dominate the Revolution in its most radical phase. This was the period of the Jacobin government, which lasted from June 1793 to Robespierre’s overthrow in July 1794; the months when the common people became briefly the masters of the first French republic, which had been proclaimed in September 1792. It is also known, more ominously, as the Terror.

Source: Robespierre and the Terror | History Today

There is always more to the story than we know…..I try to help with that oversight.

Class dismissed!

Nice: A Day Of Horror

Once again the bastards have struck…….they chose a day of celebration in France, Bastille Day, to commit a heinous act….this time in the sleepy city of Nice in the Southeast of the country…..

Authorities say at least 84 people are dead and dozens more injured after a truck plowed into a Bastille Day celebration Thursday in Nice, France. Reuters reports the crowd was leaving holiday festivities at the Promenade des Anglais seaside walk when the truck hit it. The truck drove for more than a mile through the crowd, according to CNN. A witness tells the Guardian the truck was going between 25mph and 30mph. “I was walking for nearly a mile, and there were dead bodies all over the place,” a journalist at the scene says. “We saw people hit and bits of debris flying around,” another reporter says. “It was absolute chaos.”

The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for “murder, attempted murder in an organized group linked to a terrorist enterprise,” reports AP. There are reports the driver of the truck, who was believed to be the only person inside, fired on the crowd. The driver was shot and killed by police, and authorities say they found weapons, including guns and grenades, inside the truck. Authorities are asking people to stay inside their homes. CBS News reports French anti-terror police are now investigating the attack. President Obama condemned what “appears to be a horrific terrorist attack,” adding, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and other loved ones of those killed.”

The MSM has begun its endless speculation……but what is known so far?

Witnesses have described scenes of chaos, terror, and panic as an attacker drove a heavy truck through a crowd gathered to watch Bastille Day fireworks in Nice, France on Thursday night, killing at least 80 people. Large numbers of families had gathered along the seafront Promenade des Anglais and witnesses say they saw parents throw their children to safety as the truck zigzagged for more than a mile, leaving a trail of dead and injured people behind it. “We saw essentially a stampede of people coming along the Promenade des Anglais,” US-Palestinian writer Ismail Khalidi tells the Guardian. “We are talking families, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. Then all of a sudden the stampede started coming from the other direction,” he says. “I have never seen that level of chaos and hysteria and terror.” The latest developments:

  • President Francois Hollande says he has no doubt that attack was terrorism and he is extending the state of emergency brought in after last November’s Paris attacks by three months, reports Reuters. “France is filled with sadness by this new tragedy,” said Hollande, who is calling up police and military reservists.
  • “France was struck on the day of its national fete, July 14, the symbol of liberty,” Hollande said in a televised address early Friday, calling the attack a “monstrosity” and “an absolute violence.” “The terrorist character (of the attack) cannot be denied,” he said. “All of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorists.”
  • A police sources tells AFP that the identity papers of a French-Tunisian man were found in the truck after the driver was shot dead by police. The sources say that the driver got out of the truck and exchanged fire with police before he was killed.
  • A spokesman for a pediatric hospital in Nice tells Reuters that children were among those killed in the attack and many children are now undergoing serious operations at the hospital.
  • Nice Matin journalist Damien Allemand says the screams began just as the fireworks ended and people got up to leave, the AP reports. “A fraction of a second later, an enormous white truck came along at a crazy speed, turning the wheel to mow down the maximum number of people,” he says. “I saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route. Heard noises, cries that I will never forget.”

So far no one has claimed responsibility for this attack……yet more innocents died so that some group of blood thirsty bastards can make a point.  This type of violence is far from over…..keep in mind that while ISIS loses territory the “ghost” caliphate will step up the international attacks.

Now the whole array of BS will start…instead of focusing on the act the conversation will most likely devolve into a war of words.

Paris: Who Knew And When?

After the horrible attacks in Paris and the subsequent raids by the national police….there seems to be a massive amount of misinformation….so bad that some media sources are making up their own headlines….confusion seems to be the only constant in this whole incident.

But most of this is today’s news…..I would like to drop back to last week before the Paris attacks…..

It appears that France has the same problem that Washington had before 9/11……that being that there was info coming in that something was about to happen and the government decided that it was unreliable and ignored it…..and BAM!

It is being reported that France was told by Arab intel sources that there would be an attack……

As ISIS continues to grow in the Middle East, those nations in the vicinity have been watching close, and gathering large amounts of intelligence on them. Yet when ISIS looks to attack Western nations like France, advance warnings from the Arab nations appear to go unheeded.

Both Iraq and Saudi Arabia reportedly provided France with warnings ahead of the Friday ISIS attacks, and a lot of other Arab nations seem to be awash in intelligence that Western nations treat with automatic suspicion.

Officials also complain that those nations haven’t always been a forthcoming with intelligence as the US and others would’ve hoped in the past, though it seems that’s a poor excuse for spurning their intelligence now that it’s on offer.

I know that hindsight is 20/20…….but maybe we should start putting a little more faith in the intel that is offered…..and maybe we could avoid some of the bloodshed.

As I was about to publish this post news has come out that should make some happy…….

He’s dead: Authorities in Paris today said the man believed to have orchestrated the terror attacks in the City of Lights was killed in Wednesday’s police raid, reports the AP. The fate of Abdel­hamid Abaaoud had been unclear as authorities tried to identify the remains of two people killed during the raid in the suburb of Saint Denis, but the city prosecutor said today that Abaaoud had been identified through skin samples. A woman blew herself up at the start of the raid, and the 28-year-old Abaaoud apparently was killed in that explosion. The woman who died may be Abaaoud’s cousin, who had been wiretapped by security agencies, reports CNN.

The head of a special forces unit, speaking to Le Figaro, explained why the bodies weren’t easy to identify, the AP reports. He says that when officers entered the building, one of the bodies fell from the third floor to the second floor. “The corpse was mutilated, probably from grenades, and he wasn’t recognizable,” he says. “Other people were in the stairwell, two men hiding under blankets and whatever they could find. We arrested them.” Prior to the raid, Abaaoud was believed to have been in Syria, notes Reuters, but intelligence revealed that he had slipped back into France undetected. At a Wednesday press conference, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the terror cell had been preparing to carry out a fresh attack. Five police officers were injured during the operation and a police dog was killed. (Abaaoud’s own family may be celebrating news of his death.)

One down….thousands to go!

A Few Things About The Paris Attacks

By now it has sunk in just how horrific the latest terror attacks in Paris are….and it is far from over just today the National Police of France had a raid trying to locate the “mastermind” of the attacks (this will be covered later in this post)……

The media is doing a fine job of report (I say that with a sarcastic tone)….to me they are giving no new information kinda feels like they are doing more speculation than reporting…..

But that aside there are a few issues about this attack that I would like to cover…..first is the report from Iraq…..

Senior Iraqi intelligence officials warned members of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group of imminent assaults by the militant organization just one day before last week’s deadly attacks in Paris killed 129 people, the AP has learned. Iraqi intelligence sent a dispatch saying the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had ordered an attack on coalition countries fighting against them in Iraq and Syria, as well as on Iran and Russia, through bombings or other attacks in the days ahead. The dispatch said the Iraqis had no specific details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official told the AP that French intelligence gets this kind of communication “all the time” and “every day.”

Six senior Iraqi officials confirmed the information in the dispatch, a copy of which was obtained by the AP, and four of these intelligence officials said they also warned France specifically of a potential attack. Two officials say that France was warned beforehand of details that French authorities have yet to make public. Among the other warnings cited by Iraqi officials: that the Paris attacks appear to have been planned in Raqqa, Syria—the Islamic State’s de-facto capital—where the attackers were trained specifically for this operation and with the intention of sending them to France. The officials also said a sleeper cell in France then met with the attackers after their training and helped them execute the plan. There were 24 people involved in the operation, they said: 19 attackers and five others in charge of logistics and planning.

Not something that is being reported for it does not fit into the dialog that the media wants to have…..

I guess my question is….did the French take the warning seriously?

Next, is this psychopathic douche bag, Abdelhamid Abaaoud………

French official ID's suspected mastermind of Paris attacks - Story

Belgian and French authorities are also investigating whether a Belgian man suspected of being the mastermind behind a foiled Belgian terrorist plot in January orchestrated Friday’s onslaught, officials familiar with the probe said.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was raised in Brussels, may have escaped to Syria after police shot and killed two men in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers who were plotting to kill police officers.

A French official said Abaaoud, who grew up in Brussels, had contacts with Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old man born in Belgium, now the subject of a massive manhunt, whose brother was among the seven suicide bombers who wreaked havoc at a sports arena, a concert hall and through the streets of Paris, killing at least 129 people.

Suspected mastermind ... 27-year-old Belgian man Abdelhamid Abaaoud is ...

Please STOP using the term “mastermind” to describe this pathetic douche!  At best he is a team leader or mission leader….to call him a mastermind is giving this person more status than he should have.  Once again it looks like the media is sensationalizing this person for their own benefit….does nothing to inform the public.

Then early morning today the French police struck…….

Dramatic developments in the hunt for surviving suspects from the Paris attacks: At least two are dead and seven more arrested after a huge police raid on an apartment in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, Wednesday morning. The big question—whether alleged mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud is among them—remains unclear, reports the AP. He was thought to have been hiding in a safe house in the neighborhood. A woman detonated a suicide belt when police moved in, and a man was killed when a grenade went off, reports the New York Times. The police action lasted about seven hours. More:

  • In a speech after the raid, French President Francois Hollande declared that ISIS is “threatening the whole world” and told lawmakers that France must “reestablish control of (its) frontiers,” reports the BBC. Fighting terrorism must be the nation’s top priority, he said, adding that France “will remain a country of liberty and culture” and “never give in to fear.”
  • A source tells Reuters that the raid on the Saint-Denis apartment was launched after investigators found a cellphone in a garbage can outside the Bataclan concert hall, with a map of the area and a text message saying: “Let’s go.”
  • Abaaoud was believed to have orchestrated the attacks from inside Syria, and it would be what the Washington Post calls a “startling turn of events” if he did indeed manage to slip back into Europe while being hunted by multiple intelligence agencies.
  • The man whose apartment was at the center of the operation claims a friend asked him to put the guests up and he had no idea who they were. “Someone asked me to put two people up for three days and I did them a favor, it’s normal,” he told French TV channel BFMTV, per ITV. “I don’t know where they came from, I don’t know anything. If I’d known, do you think I’d have done it?”

I am sure that we will eventually get the answers we are looking for……but whether they are accurate will depend on who does the reporting.

France Retaliates

The whole world is reeling from the latest terrorist attacks in Paris that has killed at least 120 people….do I need to capsulize the attacks or were you caring enough to follow the news?

I will assume that you have seen all the news pertaining to this attack….. (sadly I have been mistaken before)……

How many presidential wannabes ran for a camera to make a statement?  That is disgusting….but then I expect nothing less than disgusting from Republicans……

Moving on…….

France decided to respond after the attacks…..(and the peasants danced)…….

Two days after coordinated terror attacks killed 129 people in Paris, France is said to be conducting “massive” airstrikes against two jihadi sites in Raqqa, Syria. A French defense official tells CNN that twelve aircraft dropped 20 bombs on Raqqa—which ISIS considers the capital of its caliphate—targeting a training camp, recruitment center, ammunition storage base, and command center. He described the attacks as successful. Meanwhile, as police launched an international manhunt for a key suspect in the Paris attacks, French officials say police had already found him near the border, but released him after an ID check. French police broadcast the name and image of Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old born in Brussels, across Europe, warning that he is very dangerous.

The retaliation begs two questions to be asked……

One, France attacked a training camp, recruitment center, ammunition storage base, and command center…….now the question is….if they knew these targets existed before then why were they not eliminated prior to the attacks?

Two, what is going on in Belgium?  If I recall correctly the “Hebdo” attackers were traced back to Belgium and now the latest Paris attackers are linked to Belgium…..WTF?  Is it possible that more attention should be given to the doings in Belgium?

Could this tragedy have been prevented if they had acted earlier to destroy known ISIS targets?

Two excellent questions…..that NO one is asking….why?

Personally, I want to know why if intel had these targets identified then why were they still in operation?  First rule of war….take out command and control…..pretty simple…..unless there is a reason to keep these targets working…..

All the leaders are offering platitudes and excuses for the attacks…..but if you look at ALL info then…….recriminations make the news and all the idiots that will not see stupid in their words…..but few are thinking the situation through to a happy conclusion.

And there are the entertainers like Madonna…..personally do not care what this bitch thinks…..they all see an opportunity to pad their PR portfolio……it is NOT newsworthy!

To me……there is only one thought…….something smells fishy in Syria?

This War on Terror is starting to look like some sort of geopolitical game!

Is ISIS Behind New Attacks And Shootings in Paris?

I will break my tradition of trying not to post newsey stuff on the weekend…..but the latest attack in Paris that killed about 120 people and injured many more makes it imperative that I comment….

So far we have everyone pointing the finger at an ISIS related group…..that debate will go on for a long time that is until the media has milked it for all the news profit is gone……

The question being asked is…..who the Hell would do such a thing?

Authorities in Paris have reported multiple shootings and explosions at Petit Cambodge Restaurant and Stade de France. Is the Islamic…

Source: Is ISIS Behind New Attacks & Shootings in Paris? | Heavy.com

Any thoughts?

Please try to enjoy your weekend….I know I shall….

Turn The Page!

France May Criminally Indict a Big Bank, Why Can’t the US?

Think back to 2008……you will recall the panic that set in because banks were about to crap all over the economy……and then we elected a new prez and he set about making banks “too big to fail”…..they got massive influxes of cash and we saved to go about their business of rigging the economy.

Does any of that sound familiar?

And the next question is how did these thieves manage to avoid prosecution?

Personally, I want these people to either do time or commit suicide for what they have done.

What kind of sick society rewards people that did that much damage to the economy?

Europe is trying to hold these people accountable……why cannot the US?

 

France May Criminally Indict a Big Bank, Why Can’t the US?.

 

As long as we are talking about France sand laws…..the are setr to possibly make mews again….this time in the Fashion world……..

France is expected to pass legislation to outlaw ultra-skinny fashion models, reports the CBC. The legislation now being debated would set up minimum weights based on body-mass index, a formula that would require a woman 5-foot-7 to weigh 120 pounds. And the measure wouldn’t just bar such models from runways, it would make it a criminal offense for fashion houses and agents to use them in ad campaigns or in any professional capacity. Those in violation would face six months in prison and fines of up to $79,000.

“This is an important message to young women, young women who see these models as an aesthetic ideal,” says the French health minister, Marisol Touraine, as quoted at France24. The lawmaker who wrote the legislation is a doctor who estimates that up to 40,000 people in France have anorexia, most of them teens. Israel, Italy, and Spain already have similar laws on the books, but the New York Times notes that France’s legislation would likely be far more influential. “It would almost certainly raise the debate to a new level, especially in Paris, the spiritual capital of the fashion world,” writes Alissa Rubin.

BRILLIANT!  Looks like models may once again have shape……..I could not be more pleased.

What say you?