D-Day celebration

[Anaxogoras]

If you weren't convinced by my earlier arguments that the French see the Dunkirk evacuation in an entirely different light than the UK, I hear that not everyone has been invited to France's D-Day celebration on June 6th.

[Furball]

Queeny not going.  She wasn't invited.  I think the French goverment (the actual people around Normandy and other places are still very thankful) forget that 3 out of the 5 beaches were invaded by British and Commonwealth troops, Sarkozy is either too busy thinking about how he can brown nose the Americans, or believes the Hollywood version of events to care.

[Anaxogoras]

Queeny not going.  She wasn't invited.  I think the French goverment (the actual people around Normandy and other places are still very thankful) forget that 3 out of the 5 beaches were invaded by British and Commonwealth troops, Sarkozy is either too busy thinking about how he can brown nose the Americans, or believes the Hollywood version of events to care.

It's none of these reasons.  It is ressentiment over 1940.  So far American media don't have a clue and can't go beyond "he said, she said" in their reporting.

[Furball]

I don't believe that, sorry.  An issue like that from nearly 70 years ago would not stop something like this.  Besides, the British evacuated absolutely thousands of French from Dunkirk along with the British.

Straffo?  What do you think?

[Shuffler]

They could have stayed and most likely been wiped out. In that case the french would be speaking german today and not french.

As for the American media..... they can't find their arse with both hands. What they pass as news today is nothing more than stumping for their own agenda. There is no actual reporting of the news and letting the listener form their own opinion anymore.

[ODBAL]

They could have stayed and most likely been wiped out. In that case the french would be speaking german today and not french.

As for the American media..... they can't find their arse with both hands. What they pass as news today is nothing more than stumping for their own agenda. There is no actual reporting of the news and letting the listener form their own opinion anymore.

Thats not what Bill O' Reilly told me.

[Shuffler]

Thats not what Bill O' Reilly told me.

 

[Anaxogoras]

There is no actual reporting of the news and letting the listener form their own opinion anymore.

I understand completely what you're saying here.  On the other hand, you can also diagnose the sad state of American media in terms of how little analysis occurs, or the drivel that passes for analysis.  Listeners and readers need the freedom to form their own opinions, yes, but it's damned hard to form an educated opinion if journalists think "he said, she said" passes for analysis.

I think it's fine that furball disagrees with my interpretation of events, but some kind of historical perspective on Franco-British relations is required for a story like this if it's going to be something more than noise which pundits turn into amplified noise.

[Treize69]

Most Americans don't want to make their own opinion, they're conditioned to have their opinions dictated to them.

ie- most schools don't teach their students actual knowledge that they'll need to know or allow them to discuss topics to better understand them, they spend the entire school year teaching what they will need to know to pass the state mandated tests in June. Then they grow up not knowing a damn thing or having an opinion besides what their parents and teachers have spent their whole lives conditioning them to think.

[Anaxogoras]

The bbc is also devoid of any content on this story besides "he said, she said."  Usually British journalism is a step up.

edit:  France24 is no better.

[Selino631]

I'll be taking the Oath of Enlistment on June 6th for the Army!

[straffo]

I don't believe that, sorry.  An issue like that from nearly 70 years ago would not stop something like this.  Besides, the British evacuated absolutely thousands of French from Dunkirk along with the British.

Straffo?  What do you think?

For me it's pretty implicit that the commonwealth representative should be present.
<edit> by this sentence I mean the queen is invited "de fait"



That said , I've a better memory than a lot and certainly lot better than the short one of a politician   

[Anaxogoras]

"De fait" would be French for the Latin "de facto," in de facto versus de jure.  That distinction would seem to be what the whole row is about at this point.

[MiloMorai]

I don't believe that, sorry.  An issue like that from nearly 70 years ago would not stop something like this.  Besides, the British evacuated absolutely thousands of French from Dunkirk along with the British.

Straffo?  What do you think?

There was over 100,000 French troops evacuated. Most of them went back to France and surrendered to the Germans.

[Dago]

or believes the Hollywood version of events to care.

And how do you think the real events regarding the invasion differed from the American version?  Most Hollywood versions focus on the American part of the invasion, but they never say it was only Americans, it's just Americans are going to tell the story the way it affected their countrymen, with no requirement to tell the story from the view of any other nation.  If the Brits and Canadians want to tell the story of their landings, they are free to make movies about it.

Do you think the Americans didn't come ashore at two of the five beaches?  Do you dispute that Omaha was the worst beach, with the most concentrated German defenses?  Americans did suffer 5000 casualties on the first day, and the Rangers did climb, under stiff fire, Pointe Du Hoc.

What do you dispute about "Hollywoods version of events"?