War between France and Belgium inevitable?

[Sarmatian]

Only after our army is done protecting Dunkirk while you run back to your country.

This whole history rewriting about France being a lame and surrendering nation is quite weird to be honest. France has been one of the most agressive European country (if not the most agressive country), and kicked everyone's ass at some point, even after Napoléon.
Did it exist before Dubya and his perfectly thought-out invasion of Irak? I'm honestly asking. I've neither heard it nor read it before France refused to follow Bush, while it appears to be an established fact nowadays.

Well, I had a beautiful, dense, wavy brown hair covering my scalp and now I brush my hair with a towel. What can I say, things change. Until you have another war with the Germans, kick their butt and regain your honour, you'll always be a "surrendering" nation in the eyes of the world.

Or can it be that it was only a joke? It seems that French these days lack a sense of humour, as evident in this row with the Belgians. For that you have to punished, you're sentenced to watch comedy tv shows and to make the punishment even harsher, they have to be British.

Monday - Black Adder
Tuesday - Men Behaving Badly
Wednesday - Only Fools and Horses
Thursday - Monty Python
Friday and weekends (now this is the real punishment) - 'Allo, 'Allo

[Pannonian]

Well, I had a beautiful, dense, wavy brown hair covering my scalp and now I brush my hair with a towel. What can I say, things change. Until you have another war with the Germans, kick their butt and regain your honour, you'll always be a "surrendering" nation in the eyes of the world.

Or can it be that it was only a joke? It seems that French these days lack a sense of humour, as evident in this row with the Belgians. For that you have to punished, you're sentenced to watch comedy tv shows and to make the punishment even harsher, they have to be British.

Monday - Black Adder
Tuesday - Men Behaving Badly
Wednesday - Only Fools and Horses
Thursday - Monty Python
Friday and weekends (now this is the real punishment) - 'Allo, 'Allo

There was a mini-series called Sleepers, where we get to see national stereotypes. Except that this has modern-day Britain as one of the stereotyped nations, as portrayed in a British comedy. There are 3 secret agencies competing to get hold of some Russian agents. The CIA are brash and work in luxurious conditions and have access to unlimited resources. The Soviets have rather lower budgets, but are able to make do and are professional and confident. The British have next to no budget and have to account for a packet of biscuits and a (plastic) cup of tea.

[Brenus]

“Until you have another war with the Germans, kick their butt and regain your honour, you'll always be a "surrendering" nation in the eyes of the world”:
Such is the power of Media… Halas poor Yorrick
And i think in the eyes of the world is a little bit exagerate

I don’t think France lost her honour being defeated by the Germans. GB was as well, and a lot of countries were.
France lost her honour in the Racist Petainist Laws, in the Collaboration, in Vichy government…
France kept her honour (for WW2) in 1940 when 90,000 courageous men who lost their lives in a absolute impossible fight, regained it in the hundred shots by death squads, in the hundred who protected the Jews, in the hundred who blow-up Germans trains and died in doing it…
WW1 is a French/UK victory and the heroism of the French Soldiers is not deniable. Why and how is the question to every person who put a foot in October or November in Mourmelon Training Camp…

Monday - Black Adder: See it… Not really ant-French, more anti-British establishment. The last series, staged during the WW1 is hard.
Tuesday - Men Behaving Badly (don’t know this one)
Wednesday - Only Fools and Horses. Er, why? Except the very bad French from Delboy?
Thursday - Monty Python: Not really and in the Holly Grail, in fact, the scene with the French is a reminder about the French ruling England, long time ago (lacher la vache)
Friday and weekends (now this is the real punishment) - 'Allo, 'Allo: I did like the series. All countries took from it.

No. The real punishment is to watch Sharp. Every evening…
Or the new new recontitution of Azincourt... Again...

[Pannonian]

“Until you have another war with the Germans, kick their butt and regain your honour, you'll always be a "surrendering" nation in the eyes of the world”:
Such is the power of Media… Halas poor Yorrick
And i think in the eyes of the world is a little bit exagerate

I don’t think France lost her honour being defeated by the Germans. GB was as well, and a lot of countries were.

It's arguable whether this country or that lost their honour in that war. However, it's undeniable that France lost bragging rights, which is the most important aspect of the Anglo-French rivalry. You won the right to brag when you conquered us in 1066, then there were some tos and fros in the Hundred Years war, until you expelled us from the continent. Then we slowly regained the right to shout over the French as we won the race to subjugate the most Johnny Foreigners. Then you got beat by the Germans and we...well, we did too, but we could sort of argue that we didn't. You need to find another war somewhere where we can compete again. Perhaps the Scots could declare independence, you could supply them with arms and money, and we could beat them down again like in the old days.

[Husar]

And we made the world talk about us, even though we lost the war.
We're the Paris Hilton among nations.

[Pannonian]

And we made the world talk about us, even though we lost the war.
We're the Paris Hilton among nations.

Are there any homemade videos of you beating the French?

[KukriKhan]

You need to find another war somewhere where we can compete again.

Ya'll should fight over Detroit again.

Ford Field Stadium holds 80,000 people. 40,000 per side, with Ms. Bruni (Mrs. Sarkozy) at mid-field, attired in a fetching negligee, tied to a post (ala Jean D'Arc, with the keys to the city tied 'round her neck.

Winner take all, and gets bragging rights the next hundred years.

[drone]

Ya'll should fight over Detroit again.

Ford Field Stadium holds 80,000 people. 40,000 per side, with Ms. Bruni (Mrs. Sarkozy) at mid-field, attired in a fetching negligee, tied to a post (ala Jean D'Arc, with the keys to the city tied 'round her neck.

Winner take all, and gets bragging rights the next hundred years.

Got to be more entertaining than watching the Lions play...

[Strike For The South]

Ya'll should fight over Detroit again.
.

Is this one of those things where the loser gets the "prize"? (I use that term VERY loosley here)

[Sarmatian]

And i think in the eyes of the world is a little bit exagerate

The entire thing is exaggerated since it's a joke. It was a trap for Louis actually, but you and Meneldil got caught. Louis avoided it. Ahh, my arch nemesis on the org is becoming smarter. Meditate on this, I must.

Monday - Black Adder: See it… Not really ant-French, more anti-British establishment. The last series, staged during the WW1 is hard.
Tuesday - Men Behaving Badly (don’t know this one)
Wednesday - Only Fools and Horses. Er, why? Except the very bad French from Delboy?
Thursday - Monty Python: Not really and in the Holly Grail, in fact, the scene with the French is a reminder about the French ruling England, long time ago (lacher la vache)
Friday and weekends (now this is the real punishment) - 'Allo, 'Allo: I did like the series. All countries took from it.

The point was just that they're British, not because they're anti-French or something.

You liked 'Allo, 'Allo? Seriously? That was the worst British series ever to be translated into other languages...

[LittleGrizzly]

Was that the one with the french resistance and the unattractive wife.. its not too bad imo....

I heard of the french surrendering thing before Iraq... I think its mainly based on WW2 (at least here in Britian) its slightly unfair though... I don't know if my fellow Brits think thier unprepared army could have held back the nazis in frances position...

If you were to blame anything for the quick defeat it would be the stupidity of thier command (or lack of foresight maybe, its always easy to look back) It is a bit of an overused joke IMDHO...

[Pannonian]

Was that the one with the french resistance and the unattractive wife.. its not too bad imo....

I've heard rumours of a badly shot home video called "Four Years in Paris", but I've not seen it myself. There's supposed to be this moustachioed bloke in it.

[Meneldil]

The entire thing is exaggerated since it's a joke. It was a trap for Louis actually, but you and Meneldil got caught. Louis avoided it. Ahh, my arch nemesis on the org is becoming smarter. Meditate on this, I must.

Louis got caught too, otherwise he wouldn't have started listing all the french victories and what not.

Though I find it annoying, I now know it's a joke (hopefully). Furthermore, it's not nearly as bad here as in some other forums I used to visit. I'm just a bit puzzled by how one of the top-3 most imperialistic and warmongering countries (with Britain and the US) turned into a land of surrendering war-hating hippies for the western public opinion. And it's not just the joke that puzzles me.

International newspapers are freaking out all over the world because Sarkozy acts like a bully (and an idiot) with Iran, while Obama is somehow trying to negociate. Basically, their point is "onoes, the imperialistic evil americans are not doing anything while the peace-loving french are acting tough".
Somehow, these media forgot that France is involved militarily pretty much everywhere in Africa and in a lot of other places, and that France was still pretty good at launching imperialistic military expeditions only a few decades ago, causing the ire of both the US and USSR.
And it's not only Bush-ists right wing media. Slate and the NYT are also falling for this.

Note that I overall support the "peace-loving french" idea actually. It's just that well, that not how things were, or are. The army still has a huge weight in french politics. Except that instead of invading countries and colonizing Africa and Indochina, they now blow up greenpeace boats, support dictators and spy on their own citizen (well they did that in the past too).

[Whacker]

And we made the world talk about us, even though we lost the war.
We're the Paris Hilton among nations.

I still identify more with my dear kraut friends and culture than my froggy friends, in terms of which possible side of the fence my family came from. Be kinda awkward if we end up finding out they were more French...

french victories

Don't you ever, ever do that again. The instant I read this, I collapsed in spastic laughter for a solid 30 minutes.

[Jolt]

How sad. Belgium has been replaced with Britain and Germany.

Poor ol' Andres must be crying that his country, the founding member of this thread, has fallen away into the history of this thread.