An actual letter from home from a marine with the multinational force in Bosnia:
Dear Dad,
A funny thing happened to me yesterday here at the camp:
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 bound to surface yet again sometime soon anyway.
I also told him that's 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 Multi-National Brigade East, thus demonstrating that even
the smallest American had more fight in him than the average Frenchman.
He called me a barbarian cowboy and walked away in a huff.
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Dad, tell Mom I love her.
Your loving
daughter,
Mary Beth Johnson, LtCol., USMC
