You Could Have Heard a Pin Drop

[Biker Dash]

At a time when our president and other politicians tend to apologize for our country's prior actions, here's a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative comments about our country.

These are good.
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JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US Military out of France as soon as possible.

Rusk responded, "Does that include those who are buried here?"


DeGaulle did not respond.

You could have heard a pin drop.
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When in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of 'empire building' by George Bush.

He answered by saying, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for In return is enough to bury those that did not return."

You could have heard a pin drop.
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There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, "Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?"

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: "Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships. How many does France have?"

You could have heard a pin drop.
**********

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French Admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, "Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?"

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, "Maybe it's because the Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German."

You could have heard a pin drop.
**********

AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.

"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically.

Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.

"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."

The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

"Impossible.. Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France!"

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to."

You could have heard a pin drop.

[goalie]

Brilliant

[markk53]

Lots of "rah rah" stuff, but the backstories tell a lot more. I tend to take these stories as just that, doing research to see what is real. One of them, the passport story, is simply an anti-French story that has been given as a US, a British, and a Canadian citzen, the factuality is in question. The Colin Powell story has a great backstory that points out it had nothing to do with "colonization" but more about hard power over diplomacy. DEan Rusk's story is absolutely true and way cool (no need for the pin drop stuff and there was nothing noted about any reply or nonreply from DeGaulle).

Still, it seems these kinds of stories are usually a suble shot at the President and Democrats as the opening line stated. This President is far from weak, he is intellegent and perceived as such. Maybe not by those in the U.S., but definitely by the rest of the world. He has commanded respect far exceeding that of the previous President we had. He is no one's fool when it comes to working in the world (where he doesn't have to deal with blockage of any action by Congress). It's a shame the current party of no compromise has basically taken the country as a hostage to their political ambitions and pass off this sort of stuff as some kind of morale builder to try to further their political actions.

While in Ireland about 2 years before Obama was running for president (I had never heard of him back then) I was waved in a pub by the owner of the bed and breakfast where we were staying. He knew I was from Ohio. He and his friends grilled me in a light hearted, slightly inebriated way. The question - "What the h e l l happened?" How could Ohio have voted George Bush in for a second term? Seemed the same happened to a friend on an Alps tour when a bar maid got him by the arm when she learned he was from the U.S. Same question. There was little respect for President Bush in the rest of the world.

You have a president who has pulled off some tough tactics, and catches flack from those who say he is weak on defense, when he does so. Taking out the Sudanese pirates to get the hostages and actually getting bin Laden show strategy and leadership. Bush spent 8 years supposedly out for bin Ladin. Obama did it in less than half that. He wound down an unnecessary war founded on false information and is working on the other that should have been a brief strike to notify the world not to do what had been done on 9-11. Yet he is weak?

Do all the rah rah stuff you want, but when it comes down to it, I think the disrespect for the President is more than uncalled for, but it is every bit your right to do so. As I have said, I've gotten negative and often ficticious vicious materials FROM CONSERVATIVES ONLY. Nothing like that from the liberals. I'm an independent progressive, so I have no ties, I go where I see it to be fair and in favor of the country when voting.

I will tell you there are some things this President is in favor of that I am not, but one of them is not working toward a nationalized health insurance for all. That is one of our weakest points when it comes to being competitive in the world market. All others have nationalized health care and thus there is no health care benefit as a comptitive disadvantage for businesses in their countries that is there in the U.S. That is indisputable.

[Biker Dash]

Originally Posted by markk53

I've gotten negative and often ficticious vicious materials FROM CONSERVATIVES ONLY.

Hmmmmmm... I dont know how ficticious any of it is, but I have seen a similar amount of materials of the same nature (only pointed towards concertives) from liberals.

Please dont make your side smell like roses and my side smell like *****. BOTH sides are equally bad, and somewhere in the middle, maybe the truth can be found.

(I just happen to have chosen a side, rather than sit on the fence)

[ralphlong]

Mark:

Great post. I agree with all your points. Thanks for taking the time.

Ralph

[RobMoore]

Good stories, even if half of them are made up.

At least the one about Dean Rusk is true, according to his autobiography