[Liberator]

I saw this on my father's PeoplePC dialer thingy. It's kinda sad that I had to go to a Chinese paper to find this, so an0n would be able to h4x0r my parents internet account.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-11/08/content_389410.htm

Apparently, France has invaded Ivory Coast.  They don't have any room to complain about how we're handling Iraq now.

[Genryu]

Yes, room to talk. if you read the article, you would know that france was here since 2002, with nearly 5000 troops, on a peacekeeping mission with the ONU troops (~6000). Here is what happened in this country. Warning : French newspaper.
What happened is that french soldiers were bombed by a military airplane of the Ivory governement, who decided to break the truce they had with rebels in their country (. The answer to this was the evacuation of the french civilians, the destruction of a military base, and dare I say, ONLY a military base, not the country, and lastly, when something like that happen, we don't use Rummy's solution : we send enough grounds troops to do the job - hence the 'invasion', in Lib's words.

[an0n]

Firstly: Don't ever mention me again. I forbid it.

Secondly: I already knew about this.

[an0n]

Oh and: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,137818,00.html

[Knight Templar]

Originally posted by Liberator

Apparently, France has invaded Ivory Coast.  They don't have any room to complain about how we're handling Iraq now.

- What does an0n have to do with anything?

- This is hardly compareable to Iraq.

On a side note: "Ivorian forces" has got to be coolest sounding name I've heard in a long time.

[an0n]

I liked how the French were just taking the piss with their statement.

"We destroyed the entire Ivory Coast airforce - Two obsolete Soviet jets and 5 crappy helicopters".

[Knight Templar]

The way I figure, that's pretty good for the French. They should cut their loses now and enjoy victory while it lasts.

[an0n]

They should glass the entire ****ing area with nuclear weapons then go to America and be all "Fu[color=1234123][/color]ckin' surrender-monkeys, are we? Cut your MOTHER-FU[color=1234123][/color]CKING POLLUTION!"

[Genryu]

I prefer Ivory forces myself .
I think Lib's pissed at an0n for some reason.
As I said, the french troops were here to try to stop a civil war, which is beginning to resurface, while Iraq... er..... Say what was the official words for the invasion of Iraq ?
WMD : nothing found, programs were jokes at the best.
Democracy : And we're still waiting for the election....
Saddam : Hardly the worst dictator, N.Korea is way worse and still in place nonetheless.

Do not anger the frenchman, as you're good and crunchy with tomato sauce and a few aromatic herbs.

[Genryu]

KT, only problem in this is that if we recall our troops, this will trigger another civil war. Maybe we will have a few losses, but better that than the extermination of nearly half a country...

[Knight Templar]

/me waits for France to arise as the next World Power

[an0n]

Glass the area.

Simple. Clean. Effective. Stops people/America ****ing with France.

[Knight Templar]

Well, it'd either stop us from ****ing with France, or we'd see another invasion of Normandy...

GWB would jump at that **** in half a second.

[Genryu]

You do know that America is the only country *****ing that much at us, right ? Other may ***** a little, but nothing like what we've seen from america. Must be those british roots... You would be surprised by how much two country bickering like France and England wan work well together for many things.

[an0n]

I have nothing against France, per se. It's just that with the exception of Venom/Nico (is he even still here?) every French person I've ever met or spoken to has been a dick.

[Genryu]

Eeerrrrr.... Well, I can't say that I find that fact very surprising, but I do'nt think we're worst than than the average country on the asshole attitude. But then, I could be wrong.
Glad to know I'm dicking, then

[aldo_14]

Info / background;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3991241.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3989487.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3987787.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3410953.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3986403.stm

(snippets from first article)

Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has appealed for calm after a weekend of violence against French targets.

In a televised address, he also justified his army's return to war.

Huge anti-French riots swept the Ivorian economic capital Abidjan after French troops destroyed five of the Ivorian armed forces' aircraft.

The French attacked in retaliation for an air raid by the Ivorian government on a target in the rebel-held north that killed nine French peacekeepers.

On Saturday night, tens of thousands of President Gbagbo's supporters marched on the main airport in Abidjan, which is under French control.

They also went on the rampage across the city, attacking French targets including setting fire to a French school and bookshop.
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.
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France said on Sunday the situation in Ivory Coast was "under control" after its forces fanned out across Abidjan to end the rioting.

Troops in armoured cars took over road junctions and gunboats moved into position near bridges.
.
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The UN has backed France's tough response to attacks on its soldiers on Saturday, which virtually wiped out the small Ivorian air force.

The French acted after an Ivorian air raid on the north killed nine of their troops and wounded 22, and further damaged peace agreements reached with the rebels in July of last year.

[Clave]

All of this, and I mean everything - Iraq, Ivory Coast, Veitnam, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, etc. etc. goes back to Colonial times.  Everyone was after a piece of everything: France, Britain, Spain, Portugal, Holland had territories all over the world, and somehow that thought still lingers on today.  I mean, why should France have ANYTHING to do with the Ivory Coast?  It's in Africa ffs!  

On the same note, the UK 'owns' the Falkland Islands, which is near Argentina - we even went to war over it.  Also Iraq was under British rule at some point IIRC, the whole thing is borked up, and while all the governments keep hanging on to old colonial time territories, it won't get any better imo....

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Clave
All of this, and I mean everything - Iraq, Ivory Coast, Veitnam, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, etc. etc. goes back to Colonial times.  Everyone was after a piece of everything: France, Britain, Spain, Portugal, Holland had territories all over the world, and somehow that thought still lingers on today.  I mean, why should France have ANYTHING to do with the Ivory Coast?  It's in Africa ffs!  

On the same note, the UK 'owns' the Falkland Islands, which is near Argentina - we even went to war over it.  Also Iraq was under British rule at some point IIRC, the whole thing is borked up, and while all the governments keep hanging on to old colonial time territories, it won't get any better imo....

Just of curiousity.....
France's watchful eye on Ivory Coast

It's all about national self-interest - usually economic - really.  Albeit in the case of the Falklands there was arguably justification as that was a wholly 'British' island(s), invaded by a dictator.... a bit like Denmark or Norway invading the Shetlands (er....except the 'dictator' part, obviously).  In some cases it ends up where a country has so many ex-pats in a colongy/former colony, that it become politically necessary to be seen as 'protecting' them - the furore over Mugabe in Zimbabwe being a good example, I guess.

[Liberator]

Originally posted by Genryu
I think Lib's pissed at an0n for some reason.

Not really, just that he has something of a reputation as a grey hat h4x0r and I didn't want to expose my parents to that by linking to a site that they were logged into.

Originally posted by Genryu
As I said, the french troops were here to try to stop a civil war, which is beginning to resurface...

What the French and much of the rest of the world need to re-learn is that sometimes preventing a war doesn't do anything but force the causes of the war to fester instead of being done away with like would happen in a conflict.  Sometimes it's better to do nothing than to force a very unhappy medium.