Chavez and France Complain About U.S. Relief Efforts in Haiti

• believer

  

  Chavez is a loon
  
  The French are a bunch of whiners
  
  Time and time again how the United States is easily the most generous and responsive country on earth when it comes to responding to humanitarian aid in natural disasters.
  
  Amazingly every time we do the thanks we get is international criticism.
  
  This time it's from Chavez and the French.
• darbypitcher22

  

  the U.S. is the world police to a point. We're damned if we do, damned if we don't at this point. all we do is bail people's asses out and save them and we still get loads of shit for it.
• cbus4life

  Wait, i thought Chavez and Obama were BFFs?
• gut

  Anyone else find it ironic/comical that Obama enlisted GW to help direct these efforts? I guess he has experience, even if Katrina was such a disaster.
• september63

  

  Shouldnt France be busy surrendering to something somewhere?
• hasbeen

  

  I love it. People hate us until they need us. And we are suppose to care about our image? We don't have a chance.
• gut

  pnhasbeen wrote: I love it. People hate us until they need us. And we are suppose to care about our image? We don't have a chance.

  There is a lot of truth to that. Everyone wants us to play the role of "world police", but everyone also wants to call the shots for that police force. There's just no way to be all things to all nations.
• Swamp Fox

  As far as Chavez criticizing our benevolent acts, I think we all pretty much agree that Chavez can you know what to himself, although I think it's been established fairly conclusively that it is a physical impossibility to do that to yourself. As far as France not liking what we do, perhaps they have forgotten who took over for them after Dien Bien Phu was such a rousing success in 1954. I would denigrate the French more severely but I was so impressed with the French people and how helpful and kind they were when my wife and I vacationed in their beautiful country a few years ago, that I hesitate to say anything. Suffice it to say that what I had heard about the French and their attitude toward us turned out to be totally false....at least in our experience. I still remember the plaque in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris which so eloquently thanks our country for it's help in liberating France from the Nazis during World War 11. As far as giving aid to Haiti, someone certainly has to and there isn't really time to argue very much about the particulars, when the streets are lined with piles of bodies pulled from the collapsed buildings. It needs to be done now.
• I Wear Pants

  Yeah, I think we can agree that Chavez is a tool.
• CenterBHSFan

  

  I want to know something... what's it to France/Chavez???! When they put up as much as the US, THEN their opines might matter to me. But they're not, so that makes them irrelevant.
• bman618

  Frankly who gives a crap what either of these nitwits think. Chavez is an authoritarian pile of crap and France is getting ready to surrender to Switzerland.
• cbus4life

  You guys making the lame-ass French and "surrender" jokes are about as idiotic as the French/Chavez are for complaining about this.
  
  You're about as clever as my 6 year old brother, and it is insulting to all those French men and women who died fighting by our side in numerous conflicts, and who came to our aid in the Revolutionary War.
  
  France is in a rather shitty situation, geographically, not much any country could have done given the aggression shown against them in various wars. Not to mention both the U.S. and the French had pretty much the same failures in Vietnam.
• j_crazy

  

  bman618 wrote: Frankly who gives a crap what either of these nitwits think. Chavez is an authoritarian pile of crap and France is getting ready to surrender to Switzerland.

  exaclty, chances are we have 2 nukes laying around. seems to me the solution is simple.
• eersandbeers

  Haiti is another example of what French colonialism has done to the world. Hilarious to see that they would complain about our response as we have no obligation to respond at all.
• queencitybuckeye

  cbus4life wrote: not much any country could have done given the aggression shown against them in various wars.

  Actually, they've pulled some absurd blunders militarily.
• cbus4life

  Fair enough, but still, i would contend that they've been in a pretty shitty situations at times.
  
  However, defenses at the beginning of World War II were severely lacking, and that is on them.
• I Wear Pants

  j_crazy wrote:

  bman618 wrote: Frankly who gives a crap what either of these nitwits think. Chavez is an authoritarian pile of crap and France is getting ready to surrender to Switzerland.

  exaclty, chances are we have 2 nukes laying around. seems to me the solution is simple.

  I know this is tongue in cheek, but I don't think Nuclear War is something we should so nonchalantly joke about.
• Footwedge

  I Wear Pants wrote:

  j_crazy wrote:

  bman618 wrote: Frankly who gives a crap what either of these nitwits think. Chavez is an authoritarian pile of crap and France is getting ready to surrender to Switzerland.

  exaclty, chances are we have 2 nukes laying around. seems to me the solution is simple.

  I know this is tongue in cheek, but I don't think Nuclear War is something we should so nonchalantly joke about.

  I doubt that his statement was tongue in cheek. Many people would love for the US to use our nukes.
• captain_obvious

  gut wrote: Anyone else find it ironic/comical that Obama enlisted GW to help direct these efforts? I guess he has experience, even if Katrina was such a disaster.

  Much like the Haiti situation, GW could not send the US military into Louisiana until invited...
  
  It was a public opinion ploy anyways, just like his GW's father and Clinton for the Tsunami. Took the partisan out of the fund raising efforts.
  
  They should have put the military in charge from minute one, but they were worried about the world's response, see where that go us? And worse the Haitians?
• NNN

  

  cbus4life wrote: You guys making the lame-ass French and "surrender" jokes are about as idiotic as the French/Chavez are for complaining about this.
  
  You're about as clever as my 6 year old brother, and it is insulting to all those French men and women who died fighting by our side in numerous conflicts, and who came to our aid in the Revolutionary War.
  
  France is in a rather shitty situation, geographically, not much any country could have done given the aggression shown against them in various wars. Not to mention both the U.S. and the French had pretty much the same failures in Vietnam.

  I suggest the following. Anti-France jokes can be made by the following people:
  WWII veterans
  Children of WWII veterans
  Vietnam veterans
  Children of Vietnam veterans
  People of Italian descent
  People of German descent
  People of Polish descent
  People of Finnish descent
  People of Hungarian descent
  People of Swiss descent
  
  I hit a few of those, so I'll carry on, thank you very much.
• cbus4life

  Haha, well done.
  
  Though, i will say, when my grandfather told stories of World War II, he often brought up the French resistance fighters that he worked with on numerous occassions, and how they were the bravest sons of bitches he ever encountered.
• HitsRus

  

  Geez...did anyone read the article? There is no major rift here between the French and the Americans. Most of this is just organizational and logistics problems after a disaster of epic proportions.
  
  As for Bush and Clinton...it does attempt to take the politics out of the relief effort as it should be....and I appaud all of our presidents for their swift contribution o the relief effort.