Posted by
MKotyk on Sunday, April 08, 2007 6:37:15 PM
I am a fan of the CBS action-drama, The Unit , which details the missions of a U.S. Army Special Forces team against terrorists, drug smugglers and petty dictators throughout the world.
At a fan site located at TV.com for the TV show an English fan criticizes the last episode of season one called The Wall. In the episode, the French are portrayed negatively, if not a bit shady, in their support of the team who is hunting a Serbian terrorist group here in the U.S. The critic of the show claims that America has a very wrong attitude towards the French and that the French baiting by Hollywood is negatively affecting America's opinions towards France.
Of course, our good English critic fails to remember France's refusal to allow U.S. bombers to fly over French airspace on a retaliation mission over Libya in the 1980s, their 'not so overt' support for the Serbs during the Kosovo Campaign and the illegal arms shipments and supplies found by US troops with French markings in Iraq. Iraq, at the time, was under a UN sponsored embargo which France chose to completely ignore. Our Englishmen claims that there is no French animosity towards Americans.
Having been to France (Marseille), I can tell you from experience that there is indeed a French feeling of ill will towards America. During our port visit over Christmas in 2003, there were 5 incidents involving attacks by French nationals on American sailors including one stabbing and another incident involving a gun. We got a warmer welcome from the Muslim community in Marseille than we got from the French people. During our 5 day stay, the good French people staged two protests at the gates to the base we were at. The last one was so violent that we were not allowed to leave the pier. And France says we portray them negatively? Oh, boo-hoo.
France has a very poor military reputation; particularly in the 20th Century and an even poorer one when it comes to support it's allies. France, in my opinion, rightly deserves any bashing it may or may not receive from Hollywood TV shows.