Article

2005-10-20 Europe

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Steve 2005-10-20 09:03|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 20% of french army is now muslim, with percentage as high as 30-40% in some frontline units, say in paratroopers and the likes.
I do not have the numbers in head, coz I'm a failure, but IIRC internal survey found that only one in ten young muslim-born men would fight for France (you read that correctly), and that many would not fight 'their country' (their country being here the country of their parents or grand parents, but can be extended as any muslim country).

This leads to serious soul-searching, degraded morale, and deep cohesion problems.
That concerns less elite units, which remain more homogenous... as far as I can tell, morale in the french army is not good since Shiraq in his genious decided to professionalize it. Basically, the transition has been very painful, and anyway, it is bankrupt, a large part of the gear is not usable due to lack of money (again i've seen the numbers in some internal mags, and that's a catastrophy, with ratios like 30%, 50%,...). Of course, you'll say that France itself is bankrupt (gvt has to borrow 139 billions of euros just to balance its budget this year, debt is now 1200 billions of euros, and you can add 1000+ from various social budgets), and you'd be right.

France only tries to retain its highly-trained and very effective "expeditionary corp" traditionally used in Africa (no crap here, french soldiers in that kind of units, marines and foreign legion, are very good at what they do).
But there are signs the whole thing is falling apart; October 17, MichÃ¨le Alliot-Marie, the Shiraq groupie and minister of defense, has suspended three high-ranking officers, including one general, from the Ivory Coast "Licorne" operation, over the death of a paramilitary commander.
I've read some "conspiracy theory" this could be part of a move to weaken Dominique Galouzeau "de Villepin" (who's a man), due to infighting in the Shiraq side, to blame the real IC quagmire on him.

The entry of disaffected muslim "youths" in the french army is not a bug, it's a feature. There is a whole "affirmation action" drive in the recruitment of the army specially geared toward them, despite all the disciplinary problems they pose (you don't recruti what's basically thousands of yobs without such problems), much to the chagrin of the army brass.

Posted by anonymous5089 2005-10-20 09:39|| 2005-10-20 09:39|| Front Page Top

#2 Very simple rule: never trust a Muslim.

Once you adopt this one simple rule, life gets easier.

Posted by Snump Phomomp6162 2005-10-20 10:51|| 2005-10-20 10:51|| Front Page Top

#3 'Moslem Soldiers in European Armies' hope there arnt to many in the British Army/Battlefield Social Workers. As for the Fwench how long before they create an Islamic Martyer Brigade like Iran?

Posted by Shep UK 2005-10-20 12:14|| 2005-10-20 12:14|| Front Page Top

#4 Snump, are we supposed to include Ambassador Khalilzad in that number? Or most of our allies in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Posted by Phil 2005-10-20 14:11|| 2005-10-20 14:11|| Front Page Top

#5 Snump - I personally know (devout, practicing) Muslims who I quite literally trust with my life. Sorry you don't.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2005-10-20 14:27|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com] 2005-10-20 14:27|| Front Page Top

But it was believed that, as Moslems, they would have a better rapport with the Afghans.

Ah, yes - the old Euro/colonial belief that "all wogs are the same" rears its ugly little head. ~~Again.~~ Still.

In Europe, Moslems were held in low esteem even before 911.

But their esteem soared in Phrance ~~because of~~ after that.

>:-(

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2005-10-20 14:31|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com] 2005-10-20 14:31|| Front Page Top

#7 Anon5089: I like your "Shiraq" - a nice touch.

Posted by jolly roger 2005-10-20 16:48|| 2005-10-20 16:48|| Front Page Top

#8 Thanx, but this kind of nickname is relatively common among the pro-zionist, pro-Us, right wing french islamophobic websites I waste my time with (instead of wisely looking for smut). I'm only an unimaginative copycat.

See for example the excellent hard-hitting conservative jewish http://balagan.blog-city.com/, a blog which has developped a whole linguo reminiscent of W. 's "Merde In France" : chirakailles, lepÃ©nistes de gauche, baisseurs de sarouel, torchonistes, Collaboration, droitsdelhommistes arabes, europÃ©dales,... very funny. He calls Chirac "Chirak" (Iraq is spelled Irak for us froggie), or arabizes it in "Yaouled ben Shirak", "Yacob ben Shirak", which is offensive but does justice to the character.

Posted by anonymous5089 2005-10-20 17:21|| 2005-10-20 17:21|| Front Page Top

#9 a5089 - If I had you email addy I could help you with the smut thingy. :)

Posted by .com 2005-10-20 17:25|| 2005-10-20 17:25|| Front Page Top

#10 anonymous5089, you are a darling. And very silly about yourself, but very informative for us. Keep bringing us good information from your own observations, and also from the French-language websites that I can't read. Mercy buckets!

(And trust .com. about the smut thingy -- I hear he knows whereof he speaks!)

Posted by trailing wife 2005-10-20 22:30|| 2005-10-20 22:30|| Front Page Top

23:58 Frank G
23:57 Frank G
23:38 mojo
23:13 trailing wife
23:11 trailing wife
23:07 Anginemp Hupolurong7319
23:07 trailing wife
23:07 trailing wife
22:53 Angie Schultz
22:51 trailing wife
22:47 Doomsday Gift
22:36 Angomonter Gloluter5517
22:30 trailing wife
22:29 Doomsday Gift
22:25 trailing wife
22:24 Doomsday Gift
22:14 trailing wife
22:11 trailing wife
22:07 DanNY
22:07 Edward Yee
22:04 Edward Yee
21:57 Edward Yee
21:55 OregonGuy
21:55 trailing wife