A Heart Felt Thank You to the French

Fance, as a nation, I thank you. I know that there has been a lot of anti-French sentiment lately and it really does kind of bother me. The main gripe seems to be “We saved their butts and then they act all ungrateful”.

France is a sovereign nation. They have the right to agree or disagree with American foreign policy. If they do not think it is worth the cost then they are not obligated to go. I personally would not want to live in a world where every nation did as they were told without being able to weigh the matter on the national conscience.

My second problem with the anti-French sentiment is that we are being ungrateful. If it were not for the French there would be no America as we know it. In October of 1781 General Washington defeated the British forces under Cornwallis, securing the fledgling American Confederation’s right to existence. The reason Washington was able to do this was That in 1780 the Marquis de Lafayette had persuaded the king of France to send 5,500 men to New Port, Rhode Island. This threat to New York and Boston tied up thousands of King George’s troops. The French Navy’s blockade the Chesapeake Bay area, preventing Cornwallis from getting reinforcements as he battled Washington at Yorktown. When we saved France in WWI and WWII we were returning a favor to a nation that helped us when we needed it, if we are keeping score, then we are even they owe us nothing.

This being said I do not agree with their policy, but you see, because they came to our aid, because they were the first nation to officially recognize the United States of America as a nation, I have the right to disagree. That is enough for me to respect their decision to not get involved in Iraq.