Mar 19
And many more awesome words that were invented on The Simpsons over the years.
In the sixth-season episode ” ‘Round Springfield”, Groundskeeper Willie used the phrase “‘Bonjourrr’, you cheese-eating surrender monkeys”, referring to the French.
The phrase “Surrender monkeys” was used on December 7, 2006 when the New York Post published a banner headline calling James Baker and Lee Hamilton “surrender monkeys” after the release of their Iraq Study Group report.
A word often used on the blog for small images to click on was in there too… Embiggen.
The term Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys was first used to describe the French at the start of the Iraq War. It is used to describe anyone who gives up without a fight (just like the French and most of Western Europe.)
Uhm… no. The term was used because the French surrendered in WW2.
Americans (wrongly) think that the French had a choice. In reality France had been completely overrun and the French formed the resistance. I might add that the French resistance literally wrote the book on modern resistance movements.
Gil, you speak the truth. Don’t ask most Americans for a history of the world!
Ceroth, we have a long history of not getting on with and not liking the French here, but, when all is said and done, their stance on Iraq beforehand was absolutely correct – there were no WMD (as they said) and your idiot president sold you and the American people a pup of massive proportion to further their oil grabbing, fascist and religious fundamentalist tendancies. I’d actually say that the French were pretty brave to stand up to the bullies and tell it as they saw it, rather than the poodle like behaviour of our leader, who would eat a dog turd if GWB asked him to.
Do you remember all that nonsense propogated 4 years ago in the USA, you know, banning “french fries”, “french bread” etc. All because someone stood up to the USA’s view of the world. Classic behaviour of a bully.
Maybe if more people had not been taken in by this BS, some of your countrymen and some of mine might not be in bodybags and the world might be a safer place. After all, didn’t that guy in Cuba do it all (including 9/11, which your president blamed firmly on the guy in the cave)? (*snigger*)
@ Wayne: “Don’t ask most Americans for a history of the world!”
Most Americans don’t learn history in school. They (we) are taught “history according to the Federal Government,” which is a heavily-edited remake of what probably really happened.
@ Wayne
If everything you said were true, then why did England join in also? As I recall your government was just as gung ho for it. Is England also a bully?
It’s kind of funny how everything turns to politics and flamers….
One of the many reasons I hate GWB. He made me support the French!
The US has made one very big mistake and we (americans) still feel the effects. Some moron along the way decided that the US would try to play “daddy” to the world. Now everyone expects it, even us. This “parenting the world” is so accepted many countries hate us if we do or do not stick our noses in thier buisness. Yes we screwed ourselves and most of us are not too happy about it. No good deed ever goes unpunished.
The French helped us establish our country and we respect that. Maybe we evened the debt in WW2, but among friends is there really a debt. That is really the problem.
We really thought the French were our friends and the polititians have been very snotty with us. Now the people of France are being hatefull and that , honestly, upsets us. Thus comments like “surrender monkey”.
And while iI myself will not support name calling. I understand where it comes from.
@ Ceroth: The french and the west of Europe gave up without a fight (w/r to the Iraq war)? Gave up to whom? We weren’t attacked (and actually, the US wasn’t attacked by Iraq, either), and we didn’t need cheap oil as badly as you Americans. Not attacking a country and giving up are two completely different things…
“We really thought the French were our friends and the polititians have been very snotty with us.”
Well, you have to understand them. Bush basically said “either you do what I command, or you’re not our friend anymore”. Blair, who actually did what Bush commanded, is in a very bad political situation now, since many people here in Europe (and even in the UK) think that he’s no more than Bush’s puppy.
uhm myydryn i think he made that quite clear…. now how did this turn political
@ Lifeisaglitch
He just said our leader, but it takes much more than one man – no matter how powerful – to send troops off and keep them there. And how is this tangent we are on not political?
This agruement is very close to what happened before WW2 with Churchill and Chamberlain. I agree the President Bush was not, and still is not, articulate about why changes needed to be made in that region, but I’d rather be on Churchill’s side and see evil for what it is, than Chamberlain and try to think it can be reasoned with.
I don’t hate Arabs or Muslims, I don’t believe that Islam is a violent religion, and I don’t think that the USA is blameless in everything. But seriously, when someone tries to kill people for nothing more than what they believe, that is wrong. I know that people will say that Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism, and if you believe that, you probably believe that Iran only wants to develop nuclear weapons for peaceful purposes.
So go ahead, believe what you want. It’s your freedom to do so. Just do so with an informaed opinion. Don’t bury your head in the sand.
……….
@ myydryn,
“If everything you said were true, then why did England join in also? As I recall your government was just as gung ho for it. Is England also a bully?”
I thought we were wrong too and still do. We were also sold a pup, the WMD lie, the one that said that we were 45 seconds poentially from death by nuclear weapons. All complete BS.
I’m not trying to flame, really, so apologies. But when I see crass stupidity and ignorance being forced down peoples throats, even from the office of Matt Groening with all this anti-french crap, it makes me mad and sad. And for me to defend the French is a BIG thing, though I accept their issues with our arrogance and refusal to be European are justified.
“But seriously, when someone tries to kill people for nothing more than what they believe, that is wrong. I know that people will say that Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism, and if you believe that, you probably believe that Iran only wants to develop nuclear weapons for peaceful purposes”.
Been watching too much Fox and CNN? Who has been killed for what they believe? One could argue rather a lot of Iraqi’s have suffered this fate (sorry, they are all insurgents right, except the British Intelligence officers caught with cars full of explosives dressed up as arabs…) I’d say you need to look a LOT closer to home with regard to killing people for what you believe (however warped that might be). Yes, even killing 3000 of your own people, shocking as this might be.
Sorry people, you need a major dose of reality check IMO. And you ain’t gonna get it from your media or your government.
myydryn (Not arguing just trying to clarify)
@ Wayne
I really do appreciate the way we are duscussing. I’m actually rather surprised no one really has started to flame on this topic.
As far as killing for beliefs. You are correct that many Iraqi’s have died for this reason. But who are the ones doing the killing. I honestly haven’t heard anything about British Intelligence officers, so I’m not going to support or deny that one.
But you can’t seriously believe that the USA perpetrated 9/11. At least that is what I think you are talking about with the 3000 of our own people. Maybe I do watch Fox or CNN, but where does your news come from that you think this?
Again I am very happy that we can even have this talk without flaming off at each other.
@ Myydryn
Thanks. It’s actually pretty hard to get any American to challenge the accepted view, or rather the acceptable view.
On the British Intelligence officers, read these articles. Counter intelligence, false flag operations have happened in EVERY war for hundreds of years. Why would this be different? The Iraq conflict and it’s continuation servies a wider purpose. Even GWB has as much admitted the war will never end. This article quoes the Washington Post.
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/headlines/caught_red_handed_british_undercover_operatives_in_iraq
As for 9/11, it is simply incomprehensible thaat guys in a cave could organise something like this or the intelligence and military could not have acted. Also, whatever Popular Mechanics said, buildings like this don’t just collapse when two aircraft hit them. I guess the theorists and those on the other side can prove anything, so how about looking at what has occured since 9/11, and examine whether any of these events would be possible without the 9/11 attacks.
as i see it, since 9/11 and using it as justification, the USA and my own country has quickly moved toward a totalitarian fascist state. Insane? well, what about Patriot Acts 1 and 2, the rampant attacks on peoples freedoms, the building of a false WMD case against Iraq to grab oil and a foothold into the middle east, with the same false case being built up against Iran (watch out for another “event” – most people think a nuclear device on USA soil), the attempts (continued) to overturn the 22nd Amendment to give Bush continuing power (just like in 1933 – read Wikipedia), the construction of internment camps in the USA – yes, really – read this, good old Halliburton again…
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/internmentcampspreservedbycongress08dec06.shtml
and this
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198456,00.html
The whole Cuba thing, a disgrace to humanity to lock people up with no charges and no rights under the Geneva Convention. The same people built this.
Read all this and tell me you don’t believe your government would not sacrifice 3000 people to achieve it’s ends. Of course they would!
Sorry, this is way outside the comfort zone of most Americans, because I don’t believe you ever see these news stories and so get spoonfed the same BS.
@ Wayne
I agree that you can read these stories in a conspiracy light, but also they might be nothing. The Fox story said that the plan had been in place since 2000, that’s before 9/11. The educate-yourself story really just puts out a very paranoid and X-files view. I can’t say that none of that is going on. But I just really think that people are going overboard thinking that the USA and England are turning into fascist countries. Again, I have no proof of that, but neither does the other side (I count proof as REAL documents, tapes, whatever can be considered physical evidence – and have it somewhere people can see).
As to the towers not falling because planes hit them. If you don’t believe the Popular Mechanics story, that’s your choice. But no matter how strong a structure is, if you heat it up enough, it gets weak. No credible theory says that the support beams melted, but under a 4000 degree fire of burning jet fuel they could definately warp and soften. This caused the floors above to fall, and then the weight of those top floors caused each successive floor underneath to collapse, there by adding more weight to what was falling. It’s an exponential curve of force. That could difinately cause the tower to fall.
It’s been great discussing with you. I imagine that we both are going to have to agree that we will not convince the other, but this has definately been a good experience. You are obviously very intelligent, and I look forward to crossing paths with you in the future.
(Wow – ELR as a debate forum that actually works, Maybe if the UN was replaced with ELR there would be no wars – I nominate Scott for Nobel Peace Prize)….LOL
Yes, good debate. As for pieces of paper, maybe a bound version of Patriot Acts 1 and 2 would count?!
Or the contract document for the construction of Internment camps on US soil? None of these are made up by conspiracy theorists, they are public documents. To me it’s just obvious, even more so if you do some studying of how Nazi Germany ran some sweet disinformation campaigns. Know how they got popular support in 1932? The Reichstag was burnt down and it was balmed on those who oppose their ideals. If it works in 1932, why not now?! Of course the best way to get your way is to silence the critics by calling them whack jobs continually until people believe it. Much like eating meat, no-one wants to face up to what their governments do.
It’s all starting again. A US general commented this week, without producing a shred of evidence, that most of the “Insurgent” attacks in Iraq were organised by Iran. Give it 6 months maybe less, your boys will be getting killed and will be killing there too. Maybe we can carry on this debate again when the inevitible “event” to provide justification occurs again.