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Once
upon a time when our politicians did not 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 great country. These are
good...
JFK'S
Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the
early 60's when De Gaulle decided to pull out of
NATO. De Gaulle said he wanted all US military out
of France as soon as possible. Rusk responded,
"Does that include those who are buried
here?" De Gaulle did not respond.
You
could have heard a pin drop.
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.
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 Frenchman to show
a passport to."
You
could have heard a pin drop.
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