Contemporary popular history has been tough on the French. Jokes about surrender and the coolness of relations after the start of the Iraq War should be tempered with the acknowledgement that France has a new president, elected by people who knew of his desire for a change in direction. These updates courtesey of Information Dissemination and Eagle1 on the breaking story of the seizure of a French cruise ship by Somalia pirates France Pulls Out the Big Stick, and Somali Pirates: Not Home in Eyl? show that the French are showing some couilles (balls).
France regardless of popular myth, have sent their forces in harms way many times in the past half-century, as peace-keepers in Africa, and the Middle-East. They have taken casualties and have not been afraid to shoot back when shot at.
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History almost forgets the suicide bombing in Beirut that took lives of French soldiers as well as US Marines.
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The toll for those to young or forgetful to remember:
"In the attack on the American barracks, the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and 3 Army soldiers. Sixty Americans were injured. In the attack on the French barracks, 58 paratroopers were killed and 15 injured, in the single worst military loss for France since the end of the Algerian war.[6] In addition, the elderly Lebanese custodian of the Marines' building was killed in the first blast.[5] The wife and four children of a Lebanese janitor at the French building were also killed.[7]"
The French have been our allies for over two hundred years and this writer wishes them godspeed in their efforts to crush this scourge.
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