An actual letter from home from a marine with the multinational force in
Bosnia:
Dear Dad:
A funny thing happened to me yesterday at Camp Bondsteel (Bosnia): A French
army officer walked up to me in the PX, and told me he thought we
(Americans) were a bunch of cowboys and were going to provoke a war in
Iraq. He said if such a thing happens, we wouldn't be able to count on the
support of France. I told him that it didn't surprise me. Since we had come
to France's rescue in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and the Cold War,
their ingratitude and jealousy was due to surface (again) at some point in
the near future anyway.
I also told him that is why France is a third-rate military power with a
socialist economy and a bunch of pansies for soldiers. I additionally told
him that America, being a nation of deeds and action, not words, would do
whatever it had to do, and France's support, if it ever came, was only for
show anyway. Just like in All NATO exercises, the US would shoulder 85% of
the burden, and provide 85% of the support, as evidenced by the fact that
this French officer was shopping in the American PX, and not the other way
around.
He began to get belligerent at that point, and I told him if he would like
to, I would meet him outside in front of the Burger King and whip his ass
in front of the entire Multinational Brigade East, thus demonstrating that
even the smallest American had more fight than the average Frenchman. With
friends like these, who needs enemies?
Dad, tell Mom I love her. Your loving daughter Mary Beth Johnson LtCol.,
USMC.
If you don't have the time to do something right, where are you going to find the time to fix it?
-Stephen King
AI
