France threatens “force” in Syria
Yeah, I know, I haven’t stopped laughing and it’s hard to type with tears running down my face, but France finally found something to get outraged about in the Middle East – namely Syria’s supposed use of chemical weapons yesterday. From CNN;
Hours after the closed-door meeting, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told CNN affiliate BFMTV that “a reaction of force must be taken” if the allegations are true.
“If the U.N. Security Council cannot do it, decisions will be made otherwise,” Fabius said. But, he said, sending ground troops to Syria is out of question.
I’m sure that Fabius is not threatening the use of French troops or armament – mostly likely some form of having someone else do something. Apparently, Russia and China have blocked the Security Council from doing anything which forces the UN to recognize it’s absolute uselessness in world affairs.
Yuval Steinitz, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, told Israel Radio Thursday morning that its intelligence assessments indicated that “chemical weapons were used, and they were not used for the first time.”
He accused the international community of “paying lip service” when it comes to Syria.
“Nothing practical, significant, has been done in the last two years in order to stop the continuing massacre of civilians carried out by the Assad regime,” he said. “I think that the investigation of the United Nations is a joke.”
Not to mention their inability to stop Iran from building a nuclear arsenal.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called on the United Nations to act decisively, Turkey’s semi-official Anadolu news agency reported.
Davutoglu said “all red lines” have been crossed without the United Nations taking action in Syria and that the body “can’t assume an undecisive attitude about chemical weapon attacks” there.
Well, you guys made the UN a bloated bureaucracy that can’t get out of it’s own way, so live with it or dismantle it.
Category: Terror War, United Nations
So what are they gong to do, go there and surrender?!
– “Stop doing that or we will go there and surrender!”
They are all speaking to the US when calling for “international action” or “intervention”. Though the French and Brits did kind of force Obummer to act in Libya.
Crap I should read slower no troops sending, well at least they know they can’t win … and honestly french cuisine can be considered like a weapon, small, pricey and tastes like crap …
He accused the international community of “paying lip service”
Newsflash, Yuval, that’s ALL they do. And when someone has the balls to actually DO something (read: Iraq) the lip service becomes a wagging finger of disapproval, despite the fact they WISH they’d had the balls to do something.
If La Francais REALLY wants to do something, then it should direct its Force De Frappe to nuke the place; no great loss. But I have a feeling the Froggies won’t have the stomach for that…
Well, the only troops France would probably send would be the FFL. They’re the badasses that France sends to do their dirty work, and they’re not French.
At least the Frogs are making noises. Thier Foreign Legion troops can still kick some butt but it will wind up being the IDF or IAF that will carry the water. Our country’s line in the sand was something Obama (i.e., submitted stolen valor candidate for impersonating the Commander in Chief) drew on a beach while vacationing during the last crisis.
If the Johnny Crapauds want to do something, fine — let them. I think we’ve done more than our fair share while they’ve wrung their hands on the side.
They have the FFL – send them in.
Is it my overestimate, or is the decline of the UN say that it’s on its way to and end? Wasn’t it Wilson’s idea – League of Nations or something? Hasn’t done a damned thing to stop destruction or prevent human trafficking, terrorism, warfare and slave labor.
Redux Libya. A call for a NATO response, primarily air support to “rebel” forces with the Europeans providing CAS, US providing EW, C2, and support functions. The big risk here is that Syria isn’t Libya. They have plans to deal with an invasion from Israel and some significant ADA capability. I don’t see anything resembling ground forces going in other than the SF types to do some TACP stuff.
Call ’em cheese eating surrender monkeys all you want, they did intervene in Mali while we sat that one out.
That being said, I think intervening strongly on the side of the rebels wouldn’t be too smart. I find the timing of the use of chemical weapons interesting. Why would Assad use them now? Momentum’s on his side, he’s squeezing the life out of the “rebels”. If he was going to use them, I would have expected that he would have used them when his back is against the wall. That’s assuming chemical weapons would have been a significant advantage for him- maybe they would have been.
So, who benefits from a chemical strike? Maybe the rebels used them in the hopes of drawing in Western powers?
@10: No surprise about Mali; the Frogs have never been shy about intervening in their former colonial/client states. The list includes the Central African republic, Chad, Niger, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal, and now Mali. That’s what the Legion Etrangere is there for…
The French, you gotta love ’em. Outrage, something must be done but WE won’t send troops. France has promised though, as their response, to export only their most inferior table wines to Syria.
n I’m sure a “strongly worded letter” in French will stop all the shennanigans.
Damn, even the cheese-eating surrender monkeys have grown some ballz… can you say we’re being punked-out by the Syrians?
France has enough problems with their North African Muslim immigrants torching cars in the Streets of Paris without trying to referee a fight in Syria,
Ah taunt yoo a secon tam…..
Isn’t France threatening Force kinda like Chelsea Manning threatening to man-up?
@16- Yer mother was a hamster, and yer father smelt of elderberries
@18 ah don want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction.
I don’t care what the French say or do. Let them go play with the Syrians if they’re feeling froggy. They might want to check their protective gear though, because I doubt those chemicals are mixed to just kill Syrians.
For our part…we need to stay OUT of Syria.
Five hundred dead Syrians means nothing. Just wait until these weapons are smuggled into continental Europe by one of the Islamic terror groups and detonated in Paris, London, or Berlin. Five thousand dead or five, it will be too late to intervene. Retaliation will be the only response, but who do you retaliate against? Syria, Iran, or just the Arab world in general? The Arabs are always calling the west Crusaders. They might just get that Crusade.
@18 – I fart in your general direction.
@19- You don’t frighten us, English pig dogs. Go and boil your bottoms, you sons of a silly person.
“I don’t care what the French say or do. Let them go play with the Syrians if they’re feeling froggy.” I saw what you did there, PN. Nicely done.
@19,@22,@23 – Silly English kenigggettes! Go away, or I will unclog my nostrils at you and make castanets out of your testicles. I fart in your general direction.
@25- You don’t frighten us with your silly knees-bent running around advancing behavior!
To paraphrase Churchill, getting into Syria will be easy. Getting OUT of Syria will be extremely hard.
@26 – Oh, go and get a glass of water!!!
Pfffffff…. I don’t know about your US reporting in the US, but they (on or a few of the ca. 200 rebel groups in Syria ((there is not one opposition)) and ISR and foremost NATO’s own Warlord Mr. Erdogan) tried to pull that stunt before… Twice… In the last 3 months. Seriously, I know a bit or two about Syria and about it’s leadership. And paid attention to what happened there in 2001 and 2002 when everyone had it’s eyes onthe US and Afghanistan for obvious reasons. I have friends who studied in Damaskus and know several refugees of the last civil crisis. This one is about power and control, not so mich about ressources or beliefs, at least in the broader perspective. ISR is pledging the UN and Nato states to intervine in Syria? Well that’s a surprise… They got along sooo well in the past years. But if Syria finally gets nuked to the ground the precious gholan mountains might be for trade(annexion)… Pathetic ISR TUR wants an intervention? Oh sure like all the other crappy allegations Turkey threw at the Alliance in recent years to boost only their power in the region. And – oops – all of them were proven wrong and made up. Like the bombing attack in a TUR-SYR border town where 14 people died. And without much investigations they immediately told everyone that it was the assad regime (without giving a clue why in the world it would do that… And “who” exactly where those people) and just 36hours later presented the 8 convicted terrorists who done it… Yeah sure very convinient Ankara…. They tried to pull an Article 5 case out of that. Hell they even sent a TUR fighter jet (alone!!!) over the boarder and it obviously got shot down. TUR blamed Syria for Shooting down a Fighter on Training Mission in TUR Airspace (again, it was completely alone and proven afterwards about 50km into syrian airspace headint further into it) and again brought this up in NATO Council as a possible Article 5 Case. All the stakeholder in the region… Read more »
I am selling surrender flags on the internet for the French troops before they get to Syria.
I bet I make a killing… As it were…
@10 Mali has involved just a couple thousand French troops – who got there on our C-17s.
The funny part to all of this is that the French Foreign Minister recognizes how impotent the Security Council is an even brought up the idea of doing something without their permission – which is precisely what we got a bad rap for by the French for going to Iraq.
For what it’s worth, Syria was a French protectorate for a couple of decades after World War I.
@33: The last time the Froggies engaged in force in Syria was in Summer 1941, when the Vichys and the Free Frogs (with British help) engaged in a wild and wooly (and very bloody) intramural contest for control of the Levant in the wake of the British reconquest of Iraq earlier in the year.
Back in 1982-83, the Froggies also deployed Legion Etrangere troops to Lebanon as part of the peace-making effort, and got bloodied up for the effort like the U.S. did.
I would not be surprised if the Froggies still feel that they have a propietary interest in the Levant, being that they were former protectorate masters there…
Pretty easy to be outraged when neither side has your best interests in mind.
The French can really boost the cause. Whomever they surrender to will get a significant ego boost and could win the day in Syria.
Does anyone know why the French do not like plastic?
Because you can make Soldiers out of plastic!
if syria uses chemical weapons one more time, france is going to write a strongly worded letter to assad.
seriously, who cares if a bunch of america hating arabs kill off a bunch of america hating arabs? and what difference does it make to the price of tea in china what france thinks about anything?
France really had some balls once. I kinda wish they’d find them again. Take ’em back from whoever stole them.
The best thing ever to come out of France is an empty airplane. The second, Laffayette.
The French lost their balls to the Brits and Wellington at Waterloo.
@39
I dunno about that:
Laetitia Casta
Sophie Marceau
Marion Cotillard
Catherine Deneuve
Sophie Marceau
I could go on…
@ Nik … Bridgit Bardue or whatever her sweet ass French name was … I know. I just don’t like the French. They are the most horrid tourists here in NYC. And we do love the tourists here. They bring money and spice to NYC. Not the French. They are argogant, rude, unappreciative and they can KMRIA!
@41: I have become a big fan of ALIZEE!!! She’s HOT!!!
@41.
You missed Gérard Depardieu.
Not.
Green Thunb … You ARE a friggin’ nationally recognized certified hoot!
@38. France never had any balls. They’ve been losing to everyone since the days of Julius Caesar. When you get a chance, Google “The Military History of France”. While humorous, it does demonstrate over 2 millenia of ineptitude, cowardice, and general incompetence in the art of warfare. To quote General George S. Patton: “I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French division behind me.” Or we can take Donald Rumsfeld: “Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave behind some noisy baggage!”
@38. Sorry, but the French have never had any balls. They’ve been losing to everyone since the days of Julius Caesar. When you get a chance, Google “The Military History of France”. While humorous and tounge-in-cheek, it has a solid core of historical fact that makes it even funnier. Or you can just remember a quote from Gen. George S. Patton, Jr: “I’d rather have a German division in front of me than a French division behind me.” Or the more recent quote attributed to Donald Rumsfeld: “Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a bunch of useless, noisy baggage behind.” And, being of Mexican descent, I really have no love for the French; but hey, at least I wasn’t Maximillian who got hung out to dry by those cowards.
Sorry for the double post, the old Bozo-puter didn’t have my name saved on it anymore and I didn’t see my comment post for over 5 minutes so I figured it got lost in the “ether”.
@42: FWIW, we get a good many French tourists here in Vegas and they are generally pretty pleasant. Dumb as a box of rocks in terms of situational awareness, but not nasty.
@50.
That is because they are thoroughly drunk.