France Bashing And All That Kind Of Stuff

[femaleveteran]

I am not angry so to speak. It is more a feeling that I have to "lay Claim" to a specific racial Identity in order to fit in. Then of course, as soon as people find out I fought in the war on Terror. OIF and OEFthen it is all sweetness and light. I am a bit dark skinned due to an overabundance of Native American in my family history. So I had to listen to all the Injun jokes. It was more a rite of passage I guess since I was the only female in my platoon.It is not that I feel badly about any of this. I just made the observation for myself that I am more racially aware than I was previously. I still view human beings as worthwhile additions to the human race. I am just more conscious of my own contribution at this moment I guess now.

 

[femaleveteran]

Another example. One of two psychiatric doctors at the VA (of all places) is of Middle Eastern Descent. I have to admit a prejudice. I cannot help it nor will I apologize for it. It is a gut reaction and until I fugure out how to care for those symptoms I do not see a reason to start to do so now. Seems as I should have at least have a desire. This goes for germans, french and others besides middle easterners

 

[femaleveteran]

This is just me telling the truth. I am not looking to hurt anyone but what happens if I go out on a night when I am loking....if that even happens which it has not yet.

 

[Wagon]

One thing about this site I have discovered in the last month is that honesty is definitely not punished. Someone may give a different perspective, or even call attention to a behaviour you did not realize you were displaying. But always in the interest of support.

We're all people with same basic problem here. So there is allot of tolerance and compassion naturally.

Somebody once said.
Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.

Wagon

 

[FMG]

The french didn't roll over and freeze in WW2. I think the whole cheese eating surrender monkeys was a common misconception.

The issue was they and the british were prepared for a very different kind of warfare. The whole blitzkrieg was as much a shock to them as it was to everyone who faced it. Even back then when we got our stuff together we still suffered at the Bulge simply because the blitzkrieg is how we work now. Combined arms, mobile artillery, mechanised infantry to support tanks and close in air support from precision (for then) dive bombers. We were ready for the kind of fortification nonsense of WW1 where we shelled each other and sat trading trenches.

They fought pretty damn well but the French thought the germans would fight straight on. There is a book called Forgotten Voices. They have the war diary entries for both sides of the war. The French were stunned the germans went around the line. The Germans were stunned that the French and British (Who they were expecting to be creamed by) were running away.

The german soldiers were seriously writing their last letters and preparing to make a marching retreat because they thought the french would respond with their deadly tanks (at the start the germans lacked a tank that could fight the french ones) and were seriously shocked that it was the french who broke first followed by the british. The french army arrived piece meal because they were still marching about and often were exhausted. But they did delay the blitzkrieg almightily.

The sole reason Dunkirk didn't work was because the germans thought it was a trap that the british navy had ranged in the beaches and that the plan was to use the french army to cut supply lines and the british to damage act as a block. A lot of germans were incredulous as to what had happened and thought Dunkirk was a rumour because they seriously expected a hell of a fight and found the french army woefully under prepared in France.

In North Africa and Italy the issue was different. The french army showed people what they could really do if they were not led by a bunch of old boys. The british and the french armies had a habit of hiring "old money" to command ranks. WW2 changed all that.

We judge them harshly by how quickly they surrendered. What we didn't realise was that they held up the germans long enough for the brits to escape (and boy did that hurt them) and that we got to see first hand what the blitzkrieg was all about and adopt it ourselves.

The nation of PTSD idea? It sounds logical too. The price you pay in war makes you question fighting again.

 

[femaleveteran]

Wagon. I did not have that reaction right after 9/11. I was already in the army for8 years by the time that happened. All I was trying to say was that after 9-11 I became more racially concience....not something I was before. I saw very little Black, White or shades thereof. I think Iraq had more to do with my new racially conscience attitude. For example, where I live, if you go to any doctor other than to the VA, and I have to go to outside providers for some things (prior to approval by the VA of course? I realized what a Muslim population in this state really was. A long time ago, no one would have ever thought there would be the equivalent to a Middle Eastern Bazarr in the center of Downtown Charleston, WV. I was a more than just a bit uncomfortable. I did not want to harm anyone, but I was awful scared of what they might do to me. Especially after the fact that I was wearing an 82nd Airborne T-shirt. I have never been one to shy away from flaunting my service but though I like some of the stuff they serve there, I make sure not to flaunt my military service.

Now that I think about it tis pisses me off a bit.

 

[Wagon]

Hey Femalevet,

You know what I do over here. I engage people and ask about their culture. I had some Iraqi kebab last month. Strange event. They almost expected me to start something.But I just talked to the guys. How did they get here, when did they come over. Curiosity always gets the best of me. I want to know peoples story.

But I am just really one of them in Norway. Only difference is I came in on a work permit and married a Norwegian. Those guys spent time in a virtual concentration camp in the north of Norway. Yeah no kidding. Any immigrant that is a refugee is stuck in the cold dark place for some months in a hut run by some local contractor who banks the money from the state and even makes medical attention hard to come by. Unlike the US there are no sound integration policies here. There is a very 19th century feel to Europe these days. Maybe even a poisonous 1930's feel coming about again. Very dangerous.

But you know it is part of your thing. We are all different here with our PTSD. And Charleston WV reminds me of my first days with PSTD. I didn't know it then. I said goodbye to a ship and allot of good shipmates, but I never arrived home as such. I drove through that town on my way home to Wisconsin in a crappy 1968 VW Beetle. When I arrived there was a big family party waiting for me. I couldn't talk to them, and they all looked at me like I was a different person, broken and used. I said hello and went to bed. My dad apologized for me. That was the beginning. Too bad PTSD didn't exist then really as a term. But that is the past. And I do have to forget it at one point.

hang in there.

wagon

 

[Wagon]

Oh and to add.

I'm new here as well. Therapy starts next week for me. But this site has been a big help getting me through some bad spots. I am not an expert. Jimmy and Anthony can help with feelings and definitions more than myself. I'm just blathering in my insomniac state of mind.

 

[femaleveteran]

Oh hey I just realized you started this thread. I meant no disrespect. I hope you know I was not trying to argue with you at all. I respect you and I am glad you did not slam me because of what I said

 

[Wagon]

Femalevet,

No offence taken whatsoever. None. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions here. And there is a difference between feelings, debate and argument.

be good
wagon

 

[BV101]

WTF is going on here? I pop out for a loaf and a pint of milk (metaphorically speaking) and the site has gone mental! Everyone is entitled to their own opinions? Christ on a bike, we're in trouble now.

So, just for my benefit...

1) Can we make fun of the french? They eat raw meat, horses, frogs legs and snails ffs.

2) Can we make fun of Serbia? Dirty people...

re-rewind,

A.

 

[Wagon]

Whoa. Well I am of German and English descent and I eat raw meat and have eaten horse in Belgium and all the other stuff. Good stuff in my opinion.

And yeah the Serbs are well out of order with their superior nationalistic bullshit. And I have run into my fair share of snobby Frenchmen that pissed me off so much I wanted drag their face through my sautéed calf kidneys in cream sauce and on over to the cheese tray. Actually my major problem is Danes, and allot of Americans I meet over here.

I think the penultimate statement I was trying to make was that Nationality is a label, not the definitive behaviour or attitude of every single person under that label. There may even be a Dane who is not an ass-hole. And I hope to meet that person one day.

wagon