From an Email:

 

When in England , at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush.

 

He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.'

 

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There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?'

 

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from! their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'

 

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A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'

 

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'

 

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Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.

 

"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. "Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."

 

The American said, ''The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

 

"Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France!" The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to."

Edited January 23, 200917 yr by bugatti

Those are great! :thumb:

If those are actually true... Wow!

 

If just urban myths... they're still worth contemplating. :thumb:

According to snopes.com, the Colin Powell story is true.

 

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/powell.asp

 

Awesome, I might add! :thumb:

Those are really good.

Good stuff !!:thumb:

According to snopes.com, the Colin Powell story is true.

 

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/powell.asp

 

Awesome, I might add! :thumb:

 

Wow, I didn't think any of them were true.

I figured the Colin Powell story was possibly true...the rest of them, I was skeptical of. It would be harder to confirm or disprove the last three I would imagine.

 

Regardless, I agree with Fastbreak. They're worth contemplating.

Awesome! :clap:

While they may or may not be true, this looks like one of any number of e-mails that come across my desk. Or did, before I retired.

I especially like the second and fourth conversation.

Wouldn't it be great if our military were trained to use their equipment like the carrier on a consistent basis, and that was their first priority.

Wouldn't it be great if our military were trained to use their equipment like the carrier on a consistent basis, and that was their first priority.

It would be great if the world were a peaceful place where that's all our military had to do... but until then, I'm okay with their primary purpose being the defense of this nation and humanitarians second.

Good stories. But the Colin Powell example is off-base in its contention. Unless he only meant the wars after the Spanish-American War.

Good stories. But the Colin Powell example is off-base in its contention. Unless he only meant the wars after the Spanish-American War.

 

 

Well there is the Mexican-American war too, but we took more than enough land there to bury our dead in.