Military History | How To Make War | Wars Around the World Rules of Use How to Behave on an Internet Forum
Armed Forces of the World Discussion Board
   Return to Topic Page
Subject: France is a relatively weak military power.
Nappy    6/23/2005 5:02:28 PM
France is a relatively weak military power in terms of the world. It has neither logisitcal nor economic capability to invade none other then it's neighbors (possibly a land invasion of England included). What do I mean by invasion? Ability to completely invade,dominate, and ultimately totally control (not like the "green zone" areas and chaos we see in Iraq). Germany is a possiblity but their armaments production capability is far higher then France. Spain is also a possiblity, but to be frank not possible due to the terrain(Pyrnees), and capability of the Spanish airforce (they have a significant airforce believe it or not, in fact with a budget of 8 billion annually just for the airforce.) England is a possiblity also, the French navy is significantly inferior to the English navy but it's possible to perhaps make a surprise landing. As far as comparing France to say an India. This is ludicrous. If India wishes, (this will NEVER happen) she could invade Russia and take Moscow (without Nuclear weapons of course), this could be done fairly easily by India (perhaps with a loss of 20-30 million Indians), Indians frankly pump out more and better qualified engineers, chemist then say France and Russia combined as per the DOW chemical company R&D report in 2004, and have a better capacity to utilize these resources, the Indian economy is much bigger in production capability then say a France or Russia (as output by ODM per operating cost). Finally, I just don't believe France has the "willpower" to do anything like an invasion. It's people are too inclined to luxuries and other wasteful and decadent excess that they will rather surrender or bargain with another power rather then fight. I do not mean to offend or upset anyone (in fact this is a complement to the highly developed social paradise setup by the French people) but the realities are that in a war France would probably roll over.
 
Quote    Reply

Show Only Poster Name and Title     Newest to Oldest
Pages: PREV  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15   NEXT
Grenadier Voltigeur    RE:French military help for tsunali's victims - Grenadier   6/29/2005 1:03:06 PM
I recognized that french human rights babbling is quite hypocritical. But it's nearly the same for all western democracies which tend to "imperialism" (so France, UK, and USA). About french helping US in the mideast: more to lose than to win. Doing that, France risk to lose all its diplomatic connection and commercial ties with mideast countries. Multiplication of terrorist attacks on french soil. Pubic opinion disaster. And all that for oil supply which could not be assured in the end (if Irak becomes civil war chaos)... Powerful America plays its own strategy, little France too.
 
Quote    Reply

ProDemocracy    RE:French military help for tsunali's victims - Grenadier   6/29/2005 2:22:52 PM
I see the merits of your answer Grenadier but it does imply something I find a little disturbing: Fear of terrorist attacks is enough to keep France from helping a Mid East country and former major trading partner find stability. And I agree - the US and UK are also hypocritical.
 
Quote    Reply

Grenadier Voltigeur    RE:French military help for tsunali's victims - Grenadier   6/29/2005 2:55:56 PM
The fact is that 5% to 10% of french population is muslim. In this french muslim population, there is a lot of young men, suffering of social disfunctionnements and major identity crisis (their parents are from Maghreb, but them, their are born in France, so, as we say in France, they have "their a$$ between two chairs". From this ensue that some of them give sense to their lives with islamic fundamentalism and hatred of western values) Regarding that, a major intervention of France in Irak could trigger the worst we could expect. My personal opinion is that we should reject all this anti-french, islamic scum to the see, but politicians don't see it this way. About this "helping a Mid East country and former major trading partner find stability." Iraq was a mid-east country when Saddam was there, under the tiranny of a unique, secular party. But now, that's just a bloody mess, with independatists Kurds, pro-Iranian shias who hate sunnis, and sunni clans who hate shias. THAT had been foreseen, isn't it? Just as we now foresee that US will not solve anything... It just gonna blow soon... and I don't want to see any french soldier in this mess.
 
Quote    Reply

ProDemocracy    RE:French military help for tsunali's victims - Grenadier   6/29/2005 3:25:55 PM
it's just going to blow soon? Hmmm...it's definitely not easy over there and we have our work cut out, but I believe that we will prevail in the end.
 
Quote    Reply

Godofgamblers    French policy: Grenadier   6/29/2005 8:40:18 PM
i agree totally with you, Grenadier. to go into iraq would have been political suicide for the french gov't. it could have led to social chaos as well, given the high number of arabs in france. france stated its policy: it acts thru the UN. in my opinion, france had no other option than to do what it did. if we could go back in time, i'm sure the french would make the same decision as they did.
 
Quote    Reply

ProDemocracy    RE:French policy: Grenadier   6/29/2005 8:44:04 PM
ok I think I didn't state my question very well - I am not advising that France should have been in it from the beginning...but what about more peacekeeping and financial aid?
 
Quote    Reply

Godofgamblers    french aid   6/29/2005 8:54:10 PM
PD, i can't speak for india or the maldives, but i know that after the disaster of the tsunami there was a tsunami of aide. aus alone gave $1B. knowing the intricacies of the indo bureaucracy as i do, i would be happy if aceh were rebuilt in 5 years time. in fact, with all that money it should look like disney land. we'll see.... in other words, without writing anything too explicit that would get me in hot water, i can say that more than enough aid was given and i hope it is allocated correctly...i think you get my drift. indonesia is very thankful. the US did a lot and were very high profile. other countries were lowere profile but did a lot: the french were also present and went beyond the call of duty, i can assure you.
 
Quote    Reply

ProDemocracy    RE:french aid   6/29/2005 9:00:20 PM
point being, with all the talk of humanity, etc, why is it that the UK gave more per GNP than France - esp with their committments in Afghan and Iraq. Germany and Australia and Japan I believe were top donors - even ahead of the US...now I agree with you about aid being distributed but I think UN agencies will go far to make sure it happens properly...also, I could pledge a billion dollars but until the check is written (and clears), the donation means nothing...so that's a fair point too...it just appears that as much as France claims to be a great power capable of great influence and wields power, etc, they did not do as much as the other great powers and I am just curious as to why and how that would be explained by those who hold France and French power and policies in such high esteem?
 
Quote    Reply

Godofgamblers    RE:french aid   6/29/2005 9:15:11 PM
dunno. you have to ask someone who "holds french policies in high esteem" i guess; every nation is hypocritical at some level. the french give out a lot of aid, but i'm sure they are more oriented toward africa and the middle east where they get more bang for their buck. it's like the argument, "how can you eat in a fancy restaurant when people in africa are starving?". well... you can't help everyone everywhere at all times. france is no knight in shining armor... but who is?
 
Quote    Reply

ProDemocracy    RE:french aid   6/29/2005 9:25:05 PM
well put - the US would probably have sent more aid if things had happened in Central or South America... I think I'll have to cancel my reservations at the local nice restaurant for this weekend :)
 
Quote    Reply
PREV  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15   NEXT



 Latest
 News
 
 Most
 Read
 
 Most
 Commented
 Hot
 Topics