← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · xmetalhead
Thread ID: 18572 | Posts: 19 | Started: 2005-06-07
2005-06-07 19:34 | User Profile
[I]What's even more shocking is that American & French Naval forces took part in joint exercises 2 weeks before the French took up exercises with the Canadians. Some way to show friendship to the guys you were just training with!! BTW, the Franco-American show of alliance naval exercises were totally blacked out in the American media. The only way I found out about it was watching TV5 France. Oh well....at least the despicable Bill O'Reilly and the FOXDROID morons didn't hear about any of these events. Imagine if they did???[/I]
Fair-Weather Friends [B][SIZE=3]US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing Rights[/SIZE][/B] By DAVE LINDORFF
Talk about fair-weather friends!
When nine French fighter jets and a weather plane from a French carrier taking part in a joint exercise with Canadian Naval forces in the Atlantic off New Jersey ran perilously low on fuel last Friday because of a freak storm that prevented them from returning to their ship, they figured, no problem. They weren't too far from the U.S. mainland, and so they could just land at McGuire AF Base in southern New Jersey.
No dice, the Francophobe U.S. military told them. According to a State Department source, quoted in the [I]Philadelphia Inquirer[/I], they were denied landing rights at the facility.
Faced with the choice of ditching their planes or finding an alternative landing site, the French pilots, with the help of frantic State Department and Federal Aviation Administration officers, managed to arrange landing permission at the commercial airfield in Atlantic City, though this necessitated delaying and rerouting several commercial flights because of the number of planes that were coming in at once.
No national American media mentioned this stunning--and potentially life-threatening--breach of basic air etiquette by the U.S. military. And not for lack of knowing about it: many news organizations covered the whole thing as a humor item, focusing on the French pilots spending a night in the debauchery of America's East Coast Vegas.
Even the Inquirer, which did report on the incident with at least a modicum of seriousness, failed to go to the Pentagon and ask the obvious question: Why were ten planes from a European ally denied emergency landing rights at a fully equipped and prepared U.S. Air Force base when they were in danger of crashing from lack of fuel? (I did make that call, and was referred to the media relations office at McGuire, where a spokeswoman denied that the French planes had been turned away-a direct contradiction of the story out of the State Department. She had no answer when asked whether the French pilots had requested permission to land at the airbase.)
It boggles the mind to think that this nail-biting incident could have been the result of Pentagon pique at France for having refused to go along with the Bush Iraq War plan, but one is hard-pressed to come up with an alternative explanation.
Even Soviet planes, at the height of the Cold War, weren't turned away in emergencies.
And this was an ally.
At least the people of Atlantic City were gracious hosts to the plucky French pilots, reportedly offering them meals and hotel rooms.
One wonders what the American reaction would be if a French military airport turned away American pilots in similar circumstances-or what the French reaction would have been if the planes hadn't made it safely to Atlantic City.
[url]http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff06072005.html[/url]
2005-06-07 20:36 | User Profile
Even Soviet planes, at the height of the Cold War, weren't turned away in emergencies.
But the Cold War ended before the vicious Faux/FReak/Ditto/WSJ neo-con propaganda machine was fully in force. I predict that "Old Europe" will have the last laugh in this sorry episode...
2005-06-07 20:59 | User Profile
Even Soviet planes, at the height of the Cold War, weren't turned away in emergencies.
Haven't you heard? According to the boys at Fox News, France is now our mortal enemy. You can't have those Faggot Frog Frenchies flying around on wholesome US airspace, that would make you an anti-American, America-hating, anti-American and an anti-Semite to boot! After all, O'Reilly, Coulter, and the Limbaugh letter say so, it must be true.
Why don't the neocons make their propaganda even easier by declaring the rest of the world, with the exception of "our only reliable ally in the Middle East" to be the enemy and demand an end to all diplomatic ties with them? That's where neocon foreign policy is headed towards at this point anyway (i.e. "our only reliable ally" and the US against the rest of the world), so why not make it official?
2005-06-07 21:21 | User Profile
And speaking about planes, the Zionist state of Israel double their order for the F-16 which will give them about 300 at hand.
No wonder they need more land and are stealing the lands from the Palestinians, they need a place to park them all.
And also what the heck do those people need 4 subs filled with nuclear missiles? for protection or an ivasion?
It looks like the Americans don't trust them 100% because an American sub was seen of the coast of the state of Israel spying on them, or maybe they were spying on the Palestinian fishing boats?
2005-06-07 21:39 | User Profile
Based on the discrepency between State Department and the Air Base stories, I'm curious to know what actually happened. Probably won't happen though. And lacking that, we can't know for sure who is responsible.
2005-06-08 13:13 | User Profile
What a dishonorable act on the part of the McGuire AB base commander. It goes against all of all military traditions and the long established international tradition of helping all aviators and mariners in trouble. The base commander should receive court martial and be shot.
Why are these people so angry at the French armed forces? Did I miss something? Did the French attack an American intelligence gathering ship and kill 34 American servicemen? Did the French infiltrate American military intelligence and pass secret information to an enemy power resulting in the death of numerous American agents. I think not.
I think the cowardly base commander was playing CYA, because he was afraid of the damage to this career if Faux news or other shrill members of the press found out that the French naval air arm was using his base. He, of course, would have been dragged through the mud by the likes of Bill O'reilly or any of the other neo-con shills. Speaking of Bill O'reilly what about this military service? He's a real tough guy. What was he doing during the Vietnam War. In case you don't know, he was in university studying to be a school teacher. Of course, those entering teaching were deferred from the draft. That brings up another, tough talker, Michelle Marklin. Last time I checked there are plenty of women in the National Guard and reserves. Do you think she'd sign up for two weekends a month, two weeks a year and a couple of eight month tours of Iraq. I don't think so.
2005-06-08 13:23 | User Profile
While driving along a nearby highway, there was a pickup truck in front of me with a bumper sticker that read "Excuse My French But F**k France". The schmuck also had the mandatory yellow/stars-and-stripes "Support The Troops" ribbon decal on the other side.
2005-06-08 13:36 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Otto Skorzeny] Speaking of Bill O'reilly what about this military service? He's a real tough guy. What was he doing during the Vietnam War. In case you don't know, he was in university studying to be a school teacher. Of course, those entering teaching were deferred from the draft. That brings up another, tough talker, Michelle Marklin. Last time I checked there are plenty of women in the National Guard and reserves. Do you think she'd sign up for two weekends a month, two weeks a year and a couple of eight month tours of Iraq. I don't think so.[/QUOTE]
Otto, the hypocrisy of the Ziocon shills is quite staggering, breathtaking, and most of all damaging to Americans who listen to these fools. O'Reilly, Coulter, Hannity, Savage, Malkin, Levin, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Kristol, Feith, et al are nothing but cowards who shill for war yet never wore the uniform. They condemn and criticize the anti-war crowd in the most vicious terms, yet they never fought on a battlefield themselves.
The repulsive and hideous Bill O'Reilly can openly proclaim that American "Patriots" should boycott all things France, and the doodoo heads follow, yet are totally ignorant of the fact that French owned companies in the US and French imports employ about 4 million Americans. Whenever some FOXDROID robot talks to me about boycotting France (since I'm quite open about drinking French wine, going to France on trips) I just repeat that employment thingy factoid and they shut up. And if they want proof, tell 'em to look it up themselves on Google.
2005-06-08 13:47 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Robbie]While driving along a nearby highway, there was a pickup truck in front of me with a bumper sticker that read "Excuse My French But F**k France". The schmuck also had the mandatory yellow/stars-and-stripes "Support The Troops" ribbon decal on the other side.[/QUOTE]
Robbie, luckily I haven't seen such a vulgar bumper stick such as the French one, but of course, there's plenty of yellow ribbon ones.
But what I find appalling is that those who hate France the most--as ordered by their talking heads Hannity, O'Reilly-- have never even been to France and have probably never had contact with French people.
Also, the ones with the yellow ribbons, like the pick-up driver you saw, probably have never even been in the military. That's the modern FAUX NEWS "patriot" for you.
2005-06-08 15:03 | User Profile
That's the modern FAUX NEWS "patriot" for you.
I call 'em $1.98 patriots because that's what the yellow magnetic ribbon goes for and is the only thing their "patriotism" and war cheerleading costs them, unlike the guys actually paying the butcher's bill for all the "Let's ROLE" rhetoric.
2005-06-08 18:13 | User Profile
If one really wants to make the $1.98 Support the Troops "patriots" mad, then all one has is to take a magic marker and write "bring them home." below it.
Better yet, you can order this. [IMG]http://www.rbnlive.com/store_images/bring0.jpg[/IMG]
2005-06-08 21:06 | User Profile
[QUOTE=AntiYuppie]Haven't you heard? According to the boys at Fox News, France is now our mortal enemy. You can't have those Faggot Frog Frenchies flying around on wholesome US airspace, that would make you an anti-American, America-hating, anti-American and an anti-Semite to boot! After all, O'Reilly, Coulter, and the Limbaugh letter say so, it must be true.
[/QUOTE]
Right! We don't want them beret-'n'-stripey-shirt-wearin' fruits pollutin' up our skies with their stinky cigs 'n' Roquefort farts!
Gawd bless Amurrica 'n' Izrul! :dung: :caiphas:
2005-06-08 21:21 | User Profile
[QUOTE=N.B. Forrest]Right! We don't want them beret-'n'-stripey-shirt-wearin' fruits pollutin' up our skies with their stinky cigs 'n' Roquefort farts!
Gawd bless Amurrica 'n' Izrul! :dung: :caiphas:[/QUOTE]
[FREEPER/DITTOHEAD MODE ON]
Bump! Ditto!
Nook them Faggot Frog French, them Nah-tsee Krauts, them Red Commie Russkies, them jeenocidul Surbs, and them rag-head Ay-rabs for Izreeul and Gawd! An' if any of them antisemiticandamerican traitors gets in the way of us Pay-triots, lock 'em up in Gitmo an' sic that all-American pay-triot Lynddie England on 'em! LETS ROLE!
[FREEPER/DITTOHEAD MODE OFF]
2005-06-08 21:41 | User Profile
[IMG]http://judicial-inc.biz/Grimes1.jpg[/IMG]
2005-06-09 01:59 | User Profile
Good thing they didn't turn aside the French Fleet in 1781, offshore from Yorktowne.
Everytime I hear the neo-cons rant about 'boycott France', I go buy a case of Perrier...
Aren't those 'yellow ribbon magnets' Made In [RED] China, like their Black Berets???
:jester:
2005-06-09 06:57 | User Profile
[QUOTE=confederate_commando]Everytime I hear the neo-cons rant about 'boycott France', I go buy a case of Perrier...[/QUOTE]
Even better, a bottle of Grey Goose Vodka. :punk:
2005-06-10 11:17 | User Profile
[COLOR=Red][SIZE=4]They knew that political equality would prepare the way for social equality, and that, again for amalgamation. - RL DABNEY, sometime Major, CS Army [/SIZE] [/COLOR]
Great quote there. Yes, those ol' boys knew perfectly well that the intentional end result of the Yank/kike "new birth of freedom" ekwality bullshit was "white" sluts pinching off nappy mulatto monstrosities. As did the 50s-60s Klansmen relentlessly mocked by der jude as "ignorant rednecks" then & now.
2005-06-11 10:41 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Howard Campbell, Jr.]I predict that "Old Europe" will have the last laugh in this sorry episode...[/QUOTE]
They already have; we now appear as reprehensible, petty, sadistic, blood-thirsty, uncultured savages, which is [I]PRECISELY what the so-called "Christian" Zionists, and the other dupes of the so-called neo-"conservatives" in the Kerry White House (John Kerry did win the 2004 election, after all, so its his White House, so to speak, even if the previous occupant, and his criminal regime, remain unlawfully ensconced within what really ought to be re-named the Presidential Palace, and irrespective of the cowardice of the revolting President-elect John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, who hasn't got enough love for his nation to even verbally acknowledge its Presidency being stolen from him*, no less, and thus retained by one of the most vicious, corrupt, dishonest, evil, mass murdering gangsters of the 21st century thus far), the Pentagon, FAUX News, etc., are, and they shall always be remebered as such, and despised accordingly..
I supose I might find it in myself to hate them (And who am I kidding? A certain, small-minded part of me can never be dissuaded from doing so; the trick is to prevent that from being dominant portion of my conciousness). But these people are, and have for some time, been conspiring in the greatest, and most despicable series of crimes in the recorded history of humanity. Time will permit such vermin to demonstrate to all and sundry that they are the very worst individuals to have ever trod upon the face of the Earth, at least in recorded history. The individuals committing the worst crimes of all human history will receive the harshest punishments of all human experience, albeit much of that won't occur until after their immoral souls have departed from their carrion, and they are permitted to know the true scope of the horrors they are responsible for, at which point I imagine they willl go hopelessly insane from their astronomical fear of retributionand self-loathing. They are truly pitiful wretches only masquerading as the leaers o the world. They are less tjhan
Thank God for the State Department, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the generous people of Atlantic City, who provided the French pilots with free hotel suites and restaurant meals. Without them, not only would those French pilots probably be dead, and France thus actually become our enemy for the next 50 years or so, at a time when we need her on our side more than any other since the days of the Continental Army and Yorktown, but our nation would look about as honorable as Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. I guess I can still say I'm poud to be an American, but I can't really feel it in my bones until the memory of this vileness recedes a bit.
I know what I'm about to say is wrong in every intellectual and rational sense of the word, as well as being almost emblematic of cowardice, but man, I almost find myself wishing I'd never heard about this filthy attempt at mass murder of some of the military pilots our French ally, under the asuspices of the Ariel Sharon-controlled faction of the "U.S." Air Force. Or does that faction I refer to constitute the entire Air Force? Is there a pro-American faction anywhere within the Armed Forces of the United States? And if so, are they ever going to act like men and do something, before we're all dead or enslaved?
2005-06-11 15:19 | User Profile
US French naval exercises have been going on without comment for years. However, no surprise certain networks did not choose those stories for airing, showing as they would that the professionals still work together while the hot air sorts insult one another.
The emergency divert denial is bizarre. I know a few guys in the Air Force, will try to find out why a base commander would deny an ICAO recognized emergency weather/fuel divert request. Unless something like a runway repair or all the NAVAIDs being down was an issue, how could that be a proper response?
France in NATO is not equal to Canada in NATO. French are not in the integrated military command structure, which colors some of the reciprocal forces agreements. However, they still comply with STANAG's, which are standard agreements, and they ARE members of ICAO, the rules of international air traffic control.
The article and critique assume McGuire's ramp was empty. It may well have been that the ramp was full, it happens, and that there was nowhere to park the planes. Divert to Atlantic City may have been with some Air Force to FAA phone calls, hard to say, sounds like the pilots were rather desperate and someone in the civil aviation Air Traffic Control world used common sense.
Military aircraft generally require diplomtic clearance to land on another nation's soil It usually takes days to set up, or a standing agreement. Since this was a no-notice drill, unplanned, the "emergency" diplomatic clearance may have been the only legal way to allow them to land, which requires State Department approval. What is sick is the the AFB folks at McGuire should know this stuff cold. shakes head
Score one for the FAA and the nice folks at Atlantic City, in any case. They done good. :smartass:
State enjoys putting their fingers in the eye of Defense. That is old news. Something smells in this story. It may be that State spun in since someone had to do some work, or it may be that the Air Force screwed the pooch. [QUOTE]
Fair-Weather Friends [size=3]US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing Rights[/size] By DAVE LINDORFF [/QUOTE]Even the Inquirer, which did report on the incident with at least a modicum of seriousness, failed to go to the Pentagon and ask the obvious question: Why were ten planes from a European ally denied emergency landing rights at a fully equipped and prepared U.S. Air Force base when they were in danger of crashing from lack of fuel? (I did make that call, and was referred to the media relations office at McGuire, where a spokeswoman denied that the French planes had been turned away-a direct contradiction of the story out of the State Department. She had no answer when asked whether the French pilots had requested permission to land at the airbase.)
[url="http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff06072005.html"]http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff06072005.html[/url][/QUOTE]