View Full Version : French Foreign Legion troops deploy to Yemen
https://thecradle.co/Article/news/14486
“In July, Paris and Abu Dhabi signed an energy cooperation deal for the joint production of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
According to reports from earlier in the year, the energy cooperation between the two countries is aimed at securing control over Yemeni gas resources through the Balhaf facility, which is owned by French multinational oil and gas company TotalEnergies SE.”
The French were always pretty good about trying to hold onto their empire and colonies while calling America Imperialist.
The French were always pretty good about trying to hold onto their empire and colonies while calling America Imperialist.
This made me chuckle. Good callout. They gave us Vietnam. And that nastiness in Algeria is still memorable.
As the world global order falls apart look for more countries to engage in military actions to procure much needed resources .
France will become the power in western Europe.
US Army (SF), USMC (MARSOC), and Limey's are there, too. Crowded country.
As the world global order falls apart look for more countries to engage in military actions to procure much needed resources .
France will become the power in western Europe.
We most certainly have entered into an era of resource wars. The new "great powers" will be those countries that not only have access to and the ability to protect the resources they need but the will to do so as well.
Averageman
08-21-22, 09:06
We most certainly have entered into an era of resource wars. The new "great powers" will be those countries that not only have access to and the ability to protect the resources they need but the will to do so as well.
So, we are looking at the "New" Colonialism?
It's funny, Colonialism got such a bad rap and now they are asking former Colonial powers to come back in and secure the area.
My guess is they will be all for it, new found wealth and prosperity and enjoy that very much. Then one day they will wake up to find that the "Former Colonial Power" now owns that resource. They will shake their heads and complain to the United Nations, for all the good that will do.
Viet Nam, rinse and repeat.
We most certainly have entered into an era of resource wars. The new "great powers" will be those countries that not only have access to and the ability to protect the resources they need but the will to do so as well.
I am more inclined to believe that after the fall of Russia and China and provided we can get there with nukes flying. Then the era of supper powers is over, but for one country.
But I am not sure that the leadership exist at the present time in the USA to assume that position.
As the world global order falls apart look for more countries to engage in military actions to procure much needed resources .
France will become the power in western Europe.
Not so long as they are heavily occupied by the enemy.
This made me chuckle. Good callout. They gave us Vietnam. And that nastiness in Algeria is still memorable.
And we were dumb enough to accept it, arrogance having us sure we'd succeed easily where they had failed. Did we actually learn anything?
And we were dumb enough to accept it, arrogance having us sure we'd succeed easily where they had failed. Did we actually learn anything?
Learn? Who cares about learning, or winning, when there's money to be made?
I feel for those FFL troops in Yemen.
And we were dumb enough to accept it, arrogance having us sure we'd succeed easily where they had failed. Did we actually learn anything?
It's a bit more complex than that.
First France threatened to come under the Soviet sphere of influence after WWII if we didn't support their efforts to regain Indochina.
Second, once committed to that effort, when France took their ball and went home, that left us in a Proxy war with the Soviet Union and China. Given cold war complexities we couldn't just hand them a win.
If you really want to understand more than you ever wanted to know there are two excellent documentaries that are far more comprehensive than anything you learned in history class.
Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War
The Vietnam War w/ Ken Burns.
And we were dumb enough to accept it, arrogance having us sure we'd succeed easily where they had failed. Did we actually learn anything?
Rhetorical though that question may be, I think we did and have learned in many ways. I think France was the problem after WWII. I do not disagree with another responder that after they created a true fiasco reality may have dictated our involvement there.
France is always the problem.
It's a bit more complex than that.
First France threatened to come under the Soviet sphere of influence after WWII if we didn't support their efforts to regain Indochina.
Second, once committed to that effort, when France took their ball and went home, that left us in a Proxy war with the Soviet Union and China. Given cold war complexities we couldn't just hand them a win.
If you really want to understand more than you ever wanted to know there are two excellent documentaries that are far more comprehensive than anything you learned in history class.
Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War
The Vietnam War w/ Ken Burns.
I'm aware of the geo politics of the time and of course seen the Burns series, and was summarizing it. We did go into that one assuming it would not be a major challenge for us with as a bunch of rice farmers and such were no match for the US, and made bad decisions after bad decisions. Once we put boots on the ground, it was not a proxy war and a war we not prepared to fight, with the usual comment about being prepared to fight the last war. We learned a lot about asymmetrical warfare at great costs, but politically, not really sure we learned a damn thing.
Rhetorical though that question may be, I think we did and have learned in many ways. I think France was the problem after WWII. I do not disagree with another responder that after they created a true fiasco reality may have dictated our involvement there.
France is always the problem.
The cheese eating surrender monkeys have left us to clean up their mess in the name of preventing the spread of communism, which was a legit threat. I remember the exact time and place I realized they were truly not or friends or allies, when they refused to allow U.S. warplanes to cross French territory en route to Libya in the 80s. That pissed me off.
I'm aware of the geo politics of the time and of course seen the Burns series, and was summarizing it. We did go into that one assuming it would not be a major challenge for us with as a bunch of rice farmers and such were no match for the US, and made bad decisions after bad decisions. Once we put boots on the ground, it was not a proxy war and a war we not prepared to fight, with the usual comment about being prepared to fight the last war. We learned a lot about asymmetrical warfare at great costs, but politically, not really sure we learned a damn thing.
So we made bad decision because there were no good ones. It was a proxy war from the moment we put boots on the ground. If we cut bait, we risked Russia viewing it as a win just like we did with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Granted, there was a shit ton of bad policy and decision making, LBJ just wanted the war to go away, he had almost zero interest in resolving it. He turned a really bad thing into a unrecoverable disaster. Don't think I'm not tracking everything you are saying, it was a giant mess.
But bad as it was, it could have been worse. Even though most people think we lost (we didn't, we left in 72 and the North didn't invade the south until 75), the reality is we were the country that devastated North Vietnam and every commie country in the world including Russia did take note of that. Granted it was at a huge cost with not much gain for us personally, but probably had to happen that way. We certainly could have done things better and more efficiently, but we didn't because LBJ was one of the worst presidents of the 20th century and most of the population of this country functioned as a fifth column.
The cheese eating surrender monkeys have left us to clean up their mess in the name of preventing the spread of communism, which was a legit threat. I remember the exact time and place I realized they were truly not or friends or allies, when they refused to allow U.S. warplanes to cross French territory en route to Libya in the 80s. That pissed me off.
They fired on us when we landed in French North Africa during WWII and there was a French division of the Waffen SS. Without being asked, France began deporting Jews to camps. If you want one hell of an eye opening documentary, find "Eye of Vichy."
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e5/Eye_of_vichy.jpg
Learn? Who cares about learning, or winning, when there's money to be made?
I feel for those FFL troops in Yemen.
Don’t. The FFL is perpetually deployed to hazardous places and tends to live austere compared to US mil standards. Yemen is just another hot, dusty, rocky place, across a narrow body of water from another hot, dusty, rocky place they live/work. Actually its cooler weather….
Don’t. The FFL is perpetually deployed to hazardous places and tends to live austere compared to US mil standards. Yemen is just another hot, dusty, rocky place, across a narrow body of water from another hot, dusty, rocky place they live/work. Actually its cooler weather….
Agreed. Unlike a lot of people who join the military and really don't know what they are getting themselves into, those guys take the hard road to join.
We worked with them some overseas, and they are hard MFers. Fun, partying, but deadly serious when its business hours. And their chow and rations are awesome.
They fired on us when we landed in French North Africa during WWII and there was a French division of the Waffen SS. Without being asked, France began deporting Jews to camps. If you want one hell of an eye opening documentary, find "Eye of Vichy."
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e5/Eye_of_vichy.jpg
I don't think many realize how many French were fully onboard with being Nazi's and were not doing it due to Nazi occupation. While the French did assist us in our beginnings, their motivations were strictly proxy war due to their dislike for the Brits, so I don't hold them up in any value there either really. They have never been our allies in any real sense of the word.
So we made bad decision because there were no good ones. It was a proxy war from the moment we put boots on the ground. If we cut bait, we risked Russia viewing it as a win just like we did with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Granted, there was a shit ton of bad policy and decision making, LBJ just wanted the war to go away, he had almost zero interest in resolving it. He turned a really bad thing into a unrecoverable disaster. Don't think I'm not tracking everything you are saying, it was a giant mess.
But bad as it was, it could have been worse. Even though most people think we lost (we didn't, we left in 72 and the North didn't invade the south until 75), the reality is we were the country that devastated North Vietnam and every commie country in the world including Russia did take note of that. Granted it was at a huge cost with not much gain for us personally, but probably had to happen that way. We certainly could have done things better and more efficiently, but we didn't because LBJ was one of the worst presidents of the 20th century and most of the population of this country functioned as a fifth column.
With the goal of preventing the spread of communism, a worthy goal, we could not simply hand them a win, agreed, but as you alluded to, LBJ, Mcnamara and his group of worthless twits trying to run the war from the safety of their office, etc, etc made the entire thing a cluster F it didn't need to be. War wise, the North was actually very close to folding, and the Tet Offensive had pretty much broke the back of their mil, but the fact remains, they "beat" us in what mattered, and left under terrible circumstances.
Militarily, we kicked the F out of them, never lost a major battle, had made our needed adjustments by adding SOF, much improved CAS, etc and were really kicking their a$$ toward the end, but credit where it's due, they won where it mattered in the way a Democracy like the US matters, and won the day.
Due to those adjustments and other factors, we lost far fewer people in Afg and Iraq, yet on the political side, does not feel like we learned a damn thing. 20 years in Afg, and all for nadda and had some really ugly parallels to 'Nam. LBJ and Brandon being of similar ilk with similar results...
Looks like HK416's
France selected the HK416 to replace their FAMAS a while back.
Great video on France's use of forces in Mali, 2013-2014. I know that this was a big reason for the Marine Corps wanting to become more of an expeditionary warfare force
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT5U-JQ8Puw
Averageman
08-22-22, 10:38
France pushed pretty hard for NATO to be formed in 1949.
France rocked the world and left NATO in 1966.
1966, hmmm what were we doing in 1966? De Gaul was pretty much a prick.
France pushed pretty hard for NATO to be formed in 1949.
France rocked the world and left NATO in 1966.
1966, hmmm what were we doing in 1966? De Gaul was pretty much a prick.
Most people have no idea. After their defeat at Dien Bien Phu Charles refused to let hospital ships filled with French wounded disembark when they returned to France because he didn't want to French to understand the magnitude of their defeat. Most of his wounded servicemen died on those ships even though they had been home for days.
De Gaulle was a sadist.
Most people have no idea. After their defeat at Dien Bien Phu Charles refused to let hospital ships filled with French wounded disembark when they returned to France because he didn't want to French to understand the magnitude of their defeat. Most of his wounded servicemen died on those ships even though they had been home for days.
Wut. I did not know this.
Wut. I did not know this.
Not generally taught in the US. Most of us just learned we lost the war in 75 even though we had been gone for almost 3 years. If you talk about the atrocities France inflicted on their own servicemen, it makes that agent orange shit seem tame. There was almost no limit to what De Gaulle was willing to do to stay in power.
Not generally taught in the US. Most of us just learned we lost the war in 75 even though we had been gone for almost 3 years. If you talk about the atrocities France inflicted on their own servicemen, it makes that agent orange shit seem tame. There was almost no limit to what De Gaulle was willing to do to stay in power.
Yeah, my dad has grumbled and mumbled about not losing for nearly fifty years (if he hated any human alive, it was McNamara), so I’m pretty familiar overall. Just didn’t know about the crappy treatment of the French.
There was a (Netflix?) movie about the Dutch in Indonesia, The East/De Oost. It wasn’t terrible. That sort of fits the narrative you describe of the French.
FromMyColdDeadHand
08-22-22, 22:10
Great video on France's use of forces in Mali, 2013-2014. I know that this was a big reason for the Marine Corps wanting to become more of an expeditionary warfare force
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT5U-JQ8Puw
That was really interesting. Company sized units, 6 howitzers and some 120mm tubes if I understand correctly? I assume we were flying all kinds of crap to them?
And we were dumb enough to accept it, arrogance having us sure we'd succeed easily where they had failed. Did we actually learn anything?
This country did not learn a thing.
And we keep abandoning the allies that truly are our allies.
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