Three Stories...

Mike D. passes these along. I was able to verify the first one (via the indispensable Snopes); the other two I'm not sure of:

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."

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Then 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?"

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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 Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.

That last story strikes home a bit for me. I've traveled a little bit in France, on weekends wrested from business trips. Being the odd sort that I am, I spent almost no time in the famous places (especially Paris!); instead, I drove about all over the countryside. Except for one locale, the attitude displayed by the French admiral in that story was completely consistent with what I ran into. Most of my interactions with the French, even in the countryside, were markedly less friendly than many other places that I've traveled.

Except for Normandy, that is. There I met quite a few people who still remember – and appreciate – what the Allies did on D-Day and afterward. Several times while visiting graveyards or monuments, locals approached me, asked if I was American, and then (upon getting a “yes”) engaged me in pleasant conversation. The older folks were happy to share their memories. I'm not sure what happened to make the rest of France generally so snooty, but whatever it is seems to have passed Normandy by…