10 August 2008

His Only Imperative is the Territorial protection of the Ego Bubble

Superfrenchie, in the usual fashion of being more concerned with his own feelings than reality, has taken great joy in a joint exercise between US and French Air Force fighters in Arizona. Abiding by his usual fixation that there is somebody, somewhere who didn’t drink from his cup, he asks why it didn’t make it onto Fox News.

Why demand that? Fox News, or any national news outfit for that matter (outside of maybe Pentagon channel, Stars and Strips, and the local station near the base) doesn’t report on these exercises at all, and certainly is less interested in finding a national victory in a participatory training exercise. If they did, SF would likely characterize it as cultural warmongering or some such. No – in his fragile emotional construct, they should have reported this one because the Rafales beat the F-16s. US news outlets, you see, should be made responsible for the tender feelings of the populations of Europe.

But his zeal to harangue someone for omitting details seems to be limited to needing propaganda that give him something to wallow around in. What he omits is that the pilots had swapped aircraft in order to intimately understand how each others’ aircraft behave if they have to fly joint missions.

Four French Air Force pilots flying all four F-16 in the exercise were shot down by American Air Force pilots flying Rafales, and two Rafales were shot down by French Air Force pilots.

The U.S. and French air force partnership is not limited to aircraft exercises, but also the entire spectrum of interoperable maintenance and proficiency training, logistics and sustainment of these aircraft.

The maintainers and support crews also had the chance to interact with the other country's aircraft and crews. French support personnel received a tour of Luke's engine shop during their visit.

French military have been fighting alongside American forces in Afghanistan since October 2001 and continue to play a supportive role today.

"Every U.S. and French Airman who took part in this deployment is better for the experience", said Col. Kurt Neubauer, 56th Fighter Wing commander. "Training with the French air force provided us the invaluable opportunity to learn from each other's operational experience, improve our combat skills and strengthen the bond of friendship between our great air forces and our great countries."

"The French visit provided an excellent opportunity to strengthen our social relationship and enhance future relations," said Lt. Col. Peter Bilodeau, 309th Fighter Squadron commander. "There should be as many combined operations as possible before there are lessons learned in combat."

The French airmen shared the same view of working and training together and reiterated the fact that France has been a long time ally of the U.S.

"The cooperation between France and the U.S. goes all the way back to World War I," said Col. Philippe Poireault, French air force detachment commander. "This was an extraordinary opportunity for both the French and U.S. to learn from each other, and we look forward to strengthening that relationship."
What’s plain as day, is that the USAF’s tone is positive and filled with gratitude. It’s the polar opposite of Superfrenchie’s negativity, even as he childishly demands respect from random members of the American public for the sake of his desired melodrama of Americans somehow thanking HIM for a foreign military that Americans DO respect, one which he isn’t a part of.

With respect to SF’s flying orgasm, the Air Force seems to have omitted the losses from their press release in what seems like a never ending need to keep warm and cozy the high maintenance egos of the civilian population of France, a.k.a. the center of the known universe.

As we can detect from his tone, what Superfrenchie would prefer to see would be that these complex, difficult, and costly flight exercises which are critical for safety and success at a time of tension would be some sort of kangaroo court on the single thing that seems to burden his soul: that anything the French do as individuals, a public, or a representatives of a nation is not naturally assumed to be so completely and utterly correct at all times - that the flaws and foibles of individuals, their judgment, their motives, are not considered in any way. It fits the ball and chain that has burdened so many Europeans for centuries – the desire to defend any flaw to the death for the sake of ones’ pride, and the use of any positive outcome as a sign of the superiority over others of individuals, even if it was they had nothing to do with it.

Unlike SF, TF1 reports it straight.

Randomly ask any French person what anything their military does mean to them, and 90% of the time you’ll give you a parroted “to hell with the world” recitation about them not being necessary anymore now that they have no hostile borders, or some feeble teenager-level platitudes about peace, along with some John Lennon-like fantasies about the world that are divorced of any fact about the state of affairs on the big blue ball. What then, if not this nationalism from those so attached to chiding others about “post-nationalism”, are we to make of it other than a feeble attempt to do whatever it takes to move goalposts and philosophies to flag the sort of pride that contradicts the prescription the same culture (with a chilling uniformity in the population) has for all others who are not of them. A prejudice even commonly extended to other Europeans.

The sad thing is that in their myopia he can’t seem to see and take pride and satisfaction in the realism, dedication, love of nation and culture, and decency of France’s pilots, air crews, and service personnel.

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