Thank God The American Revolution Was 230 years Ago

In a stunning display of ineptitude, Special Forces of the French Army attacked its own citizens today at a military open house demonstration.

FOUR people including a child were in a critical condition today after live bullets were used instead of blanks during a French special forces open day, army and regional officials said.

Seventeen people were injured in total.

We wonder if by "Special" Forces the French are really indicating "Short Bus" Forces. That would make a lot more sense out of what follows.

Fifteen civilians and two soldiers were injured in the incident, of which the details remained unclear, involving a demonstration by members of a marines parachute regiment of hostage liberation exercises, a regional authority, Bernard Lemaire, said.

Four of the 17 were seriously injured, with two described as critical following "incomprehensible'' scenes at the barracks near Carcassone, in the country's south-west.

Now Jacques, put the pointy bullets back in the box next to the crayons. That's good. Now put the shorter, blunt ones in the, yes, they are very shiny and very pretty, Jacques. Yes, I like them too, Jacques, but we must not ever use the pointy ones except when we are told to.

According to local authorities, five children were among the injured. Five helicopters, 11 firefighters' first-aid vehicles and two ambulances rushed to the scene to help the injured.

What is really scary is that these are allegedly highly trained Special Feces Forces troops; the best of the best so to speak. I wonder if our Revolution would have survived this kind of French military expertise.

One soldier had been detained, although no explanation was immediately forthcoming for why the wrong ammunition was loaded into weapons. "All hypotheses are being considered,'' said a national police spokesman, adding the weapons had been "seized and placed under lock and key''.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. The weapons did not do anything they were not intended to do. You should put the soldiers under lock and key.

Hospitals in the southern cities and towns of Toulouse, Narbonne, Montpellier and Perpignan, as well as Carcassone, were treating the wounded. Colonel Benoit Royal, head of the army's information unit, said a number among the injured were from military families.

I can imagine that a disgruntled soldier had a grudge or was looking to cause much embarassment to the French government (but then again you would think that there are safe guards against this sort of thing). But did none of the other soldiers check their weapons? The people attending the demonstration were their own families! No one bothered to take a peek at what they were about to send downrange into their own wives and children? Huh?

This is astounding, simply astounding.