This is my first post,and,as there are many fellow veterans
here,I thought you might find this thought-provoking:

At a time when our president and other

politicians tend to apologize for our country's

prior actions, here's a refresher on how some of

our former patriots handled negative comments

about our country.





JFK'S

Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in

the early 60's when

DeGaule decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaule

said he wanted all US

military out of France as soon as possible.







Rusk responded,

"Does that include those who are buried here?"







DeGuale

did not respond.







You

could have heard a pin drop.















When in Englandicon ,

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 Statesicon 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."





You

could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





There was a conference in France

where a number of international engineers

were taking part, including Frenchicon 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?"





You

could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





A U.S. Navy Admiral

was attending a naval conference that included

Admirals from the U.S.., English, Canadianicon,

Australianicon 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

Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans

arranged it so you wouldn't

have to speak Germanicon."



You

could have heard a pin drop.







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





AND

THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...





Robert Whiting,

an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by

plane.

At French Customs, he took a few minutes to

locate his passport

in his carry on.





"You

have been to France before, monsieur?" the

customs officer asked

sarcastically.





Mr. Whiting

admitted that he had been to France

previously.





"Then

you should know enough to have your passport

ready."





The American said,

"The last time I was here, I didn't have to show

it."





"Impossible.

Americans always have to show their passports on

arrival in France !"





The American senior

gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he

quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at

Omaha Beach on D-Day in

1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't

find a single Frenchmen

to show a passport to."



You

could have heard a pin drop.
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