Damn, There Is Nothing Left To Say

[Annie]

linky rich, (indicated by bold), and so depressing:

http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/004199.html#004199

After Six Decades, No End To The Quagmire

PARIS (Routers) August 25, 2004

Sixty years after Paris was seized by the "Allies," and the beginning of the American occupation, France remains a failed nation, mired in political corruption and beset by vast pockets of Muslim extremism, into which the gendarmerie fear to tread. The economy continues to struggle under economic policies driven by failed ideologies, and many of its best and brightest continue to flow out of the country, with only ex-dictators and their families, and hysterical movie stars willing to move there.

Sadly, history has born out the predictions of those who warned against invading in the spring of 1944. Many had pointed out what a poor prospect the region was for any kind of democracy, with its long history of belligerence and arrogance, and failed republics.

Noted WW II historian Robert Winthrop pointed out that the occupation got off on the wrong foot from the beginning, when the Americans freely allowed atrocities in the fall of Paris. "In the wake of all the violence and sex that the brutal 'Allies' condoned, it's not surprising that the resentment lives on six decades later."

The corruption of the French government is legendary, with its current president likely avoiding jail only because he's president. The economy continues to limp along, with high unemployment rates, exacerbated by primitive socialistic policies.

The growing Islamic insurgency in the suburbs of the capital and other cities is particularly troubling, and even after six decades of training, it's not clear that the security forces are up to the job, with many of them refusing to even enter disputed areas.

Many say that, as the US has done with its similarly failed neighbor Germany, in which many desire a return to communism, it's time to give up and wash our hands of the region.

"Nation building is clearly a failed policy, and we'll have a much more effective foreign policy when we recognize that," said one State Department official. "At some point one simply has to realize that there are some places that are simply hopeless, and all we can do is manage them as best we can."

Regardless of the future, in the wake of all their current problems, it is little surprise that the French street views the sixtieth anniversary of the fall of their beautiful capital to western forces as a day of sadness, and hardly one to celebrate.

Posted by Rand Simberg at August 24, 2004 04:22 PM

 

[insein]

Pretty much sums it up.

 

[Wolfe]

France will never recover its former glory. They are a nation in decline and this is evident when the Nazi's walked in to Paris almost without opposition. For anyone who wants to understand how the French let the Nazis in please read the book "Strange Defeat" by Marc Bloch.

 

[Zhukov]

It's pretty obvious how they let the Nazis in. They were more concerned with the preservation of material objects than they were with the preservation of their freedom.

They didn't want their pretty cities destroyed, so they surrendered.

So long as the Arc de Triomphe remains standing, who care who walks through it. I'm sure Napoleon would have been proud to see his monument, which portrays nude French youth valiantly battling armoured Germans, so willingly and ironically profaned by French appeasement and columns of Nazi soldiers.