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.

Le Grande Armée

French Army Falling Apart, Documents Show
Most of France's tanks, helicopters and jet fighters are unusable and its defence apparatus is on the verge of "falling apart", it has emerged.

From the UK Telegraph:

According to confidential defence documents leaked to the French press, less than half of France's Leclerc tanks – 142 out of 346 – are operational and even these regularly break down.

Less than half of its Puma helicopters, 37 per cent of its Lynx choppers and 33 per cent of its Super Frelon models – built 40 years ago – are in a fit state to fly, according to documents seen by Le Parisien newspaper.

Two thirds of France's Mirage F1 reconnaissance jets are unusable at present.

In 2006, France's total military forces were comprised of 254,900 personnel. In this respect they rank behind:
#1 China (2,255,000
#2 USA (1,474,000)
#3 India (1,325,000)
#4 North Korea (1,106,000)
#5 Russia (1,037,000)
#6 South Korea (687,700)
#7 Pakistan (619,000)
#8 Turkey (514,850)
#9 Vietnam (484,000)
#10 Iran (420,000)
#11 Germany (284,500)

(Source: Based primarily on material in the IISS Military Balance 2005-2006, London, Routledge, 2005 plus data drawn from USPACOM sources and US experts. Some data estimated or corrected by the authors.)

The disclosure comes just ten days before President Nicolas Sarkozy announces a major reform of the armed forces, with a defence white paper outlining France's military priorities for the next 15 years.

He is expected to argue that the situation can only improve by reducing the number of France's operational troops from 50,000 to 30,000, and its fighter aircraft, as well as closing military bases.

Instead of fixing busted tanks and fighter jets, the French want to reduce the number of men who need them. France's 2008 defense budget will drop to about 2% of GNP; the US is about 4%.

No Soup For You!

From the Brussels Journel - Muslims run amok through the streets of Paris burning cars, ambushing police, beating innocent citizens and the cops respond by:

Last week, the Paris police issued a prohibition on the distribution to the homeless of soup containing pork meat or fat. According to the police authorities – the same ones who are incapable of restoring law and order in the Paris suburbs – distributing soup containing pork or lard is a racist offence since some people in need might be Muslim and hence not allowed to eat pork.

Seinfeld Soup Nazis! The Paris police are goose stepping down the Champs-Elysées grabbing tins of soup from unsuspecting charity workers.

Pork has been on the European menu since time immemorial. In the winter of 2004 Solidarité des Français (SdF), a charity organization running a soup kitchen, began to distribute “soupe au cochon” (pork soup). SdF is a private organization and is said to be closely allied with “islamophobic” groups. According to critics it put pork soup on the menu to exclude Muslims. The organization says that the soup is a traditional French recipe with origins dating back to Gallic times. Even Asterix and Obelix ate pork soup.

( Asterix and Obelix are Fwench comic book characters.)

On 28 December the Paris police prefecture issued a prohibition on the distribution of the soup, denouncing the “xenophobic character of a charity that excludes people of Jewish and Muslim confessions.” Paris police officers had to enforce the prohibition. This time the policemen did not need to enter certain Paris suburbs because the ruling sharia authorities in those no-go areas ensure that no pork soup is served there.

In reality they do not enter certain Paris suburbs because they always get their asses kicked whenever they do.

This just seems like piss poor policing, or lazy, politically correct posturing. The cops go after free soup (these are fairly harmless, law abiding citizens) but avoid offending the Wahabi charities that seek to impose "xenophobic" sharia law on all non-Muslims. After all, you can get hurt messing with the Wahabis.

Yesterday, however, an administrative court of first instance in Paris ruled that distributing pork soup is not racist. Today Bertrand Delanoë, the Mayor of Paris, told the Paris police to appeal the court ruling. [...] Mayor Delanoë is a Socialist and an outspoken homosexual. Religious Muslims oppose homosexuality at least as much as they oppose pork soup.

Delanoë will find out what the short drop is like if Paris falls under sharia law. That's what Muslims do to homosexuals.