Pourquoi détestons-nous les Français?

Ever since the Iraq war, the French have been the butt of many jokes here. There was the ill conceived substitution of Freedom for French in our cuisine as in Freedom Fries, Freedom Toast, and the ever popular Freedom Tickler. Then there are all of the surrender jokes. I’m not sure where those came from, exactly. Then, during the last Presidential election, they dropped the big one. John Kerry just looks French. The approval ratings for the war that started this whole rift with France are at an all time low, and nobody seems to want to reconcile. Members of the right are still convinced that France is going to be overrun by Muslim extremists and plan to laugh at them and say “I told you so!” when it happens. We seem to have forgotten all that the French have done for us. We’ve also forgotten that intelligent people can disagree, but that’s a topic for another post. Let’s look at what France has done for us.

 

They helped us win the Revolution. They gave us aid in arms, ammunition, funds, and troops. They sold us the Louisiana Purchase. Just think of all the red states that would not exist today without that land. On the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, they gave us the Statue of Liberty, one of our greatest symbols of freedom! So, they helped us win our freedom, sold us valuable land to continue our growth, and gave us one of the most renowned global symbols. But they wouldn’t participate in an ill-advised, elective war. I don’t think I got to the bottom of why we hate them, but I know why they hate us!