France 2 Humiliates French Government

Douglas has the details.

The expeditious and professional deployment of US troops on humanitarian assistance missions to areas devastated by the Boxing Day Tsunami has quite publicly embarrassed the French government — on live television, no less. Yet another reason to thank the US Armed Forces. To see what is sure to be one of the most exceptional moments broadcast on the French evening news all year long, make sure that you click here to watch this evening’s news.

. . .

For days now, the US military has been getting favorable coverage on the French nightly news due to its response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami. But tonight’s broadcast was simply astounding. At 8 minutes into the broadcast, anchor David Pujadas begins a discussion of the disaster response and introduced a report on the American deploymen

Pujadas, who has been known to trash the US, was in rare form. He has plenty of reason to be incensed. It’s taking the French aircraft carrier, if they left on January 5, nine days to cross the Indian Ocean, after spending two days in port refueling. US aircraft carriers that are not nuclear-powered go with tankers so when the tanker gets empty (after it has refueled the aircraft carrier) the tanker goes to port. Additionally, the French Defense Minister ignores the fact that the American aircraft carrier was only 400 miles closer than the French one at the time the ships were deployed.

Go watch the interview (twelve minutes into the broadcast), and if you don’t understand French, make sure you read all of Douglas’s post.