A Marine's letter home.....

Dear Dad,

A funny thing happened to me yesterday at Camp Bondsteel
(Bosnia): A French army officer walked up to me in the PX,
and told me he thought we (Americans) were a bunch of
cowboys and were going to provoke a war in Iraq. He said if
such a thing happens,we wouldn't be able to count on the
support of France.

I told him that it didn't surprise me. Since we had come to
France's rescue in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and
the Cold War,their ingratitude and jealousy was due to
surface [again] at some point in the near future anyway. I
also told him that is why France is a third-rate military
power with a socialist economy and a bunch of pansies for
soldiers.I additionally told him that America, being a
nation of deeds and action, not words, would do whatever it
had to do, and France's support, if it evercame, was only
for show anyway.

Just like in ALL NATO exercises, the US would shoulder 85%of
the burden, and provide 85% of the support, as evidenced by
the fact that this French officer was shopping in the
American PX, and not the other way around.

He began to get belligerent at that point, and I told him if
he would like to, I would meet him outside in front of the
Burger King and whip his ass in front of the entire
Multinational Brigade East, thus demonstrating that even the
smallest American had more fight in him than the average
Frenchman. He called me a barbarian cowboy and walked away
in a huff.