French president Macron's Napoleon complex
Maybe his 'boots on the ground' in Ukraine stance wasn't the smartest move, knowing the history of Napoleons tragic defeat in Russia. French President Macron does not rule ou
MACRON'S NAPOLEON COMPLEX
French President Macron does not rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine, he reported during a summit meeting with European leaders on Ukraine at the Elysée Palace, last Monday It is only part of the offensive by European leaders to get the population into a war mindset. Earlier, The British Prime Minister Sunak had also said that we should prepare for a possible war with Russia and here and there former military officers,experts (there they are again) and other ‘future forecasters’ are popping up to pipe the same tune. The clearer it becomes that Donald Trump may well move back to the White House, the stronger the call in Europe to take control of our own defense, in case Trump decides to bury NATO. Incidentally, a new wind seems to be blowing in the US; the New York Times published a critical piece this week by two of their investigative journalists on the CIA's role in Ukraine since 2014. Their findings show not only that the CIA was pulling strings behind the scenes, but also that since 2014 they have simply taken over the entire Ukrainian intelligence service. Whatever the case, it doesn't make Putin's strategic blunder of invading Ukraine any less so: more than 300,000 dead have paid the toll of his delusion of a return to thehistoric mother Russia. Now that Sweden and Finland have also given up their neutrality and joined NATO, the neutral buffer between Russia and NATO countries completely falls away and NATO is right up its nose to the Russian border.Meanwhile, the British newspaper The sun launched the rumor that EU commission chair Ursula von der Leyen(UvdL) is competing for the post of NATO secretary general, to replace Jens Stoltenberg, who will come to the end of a long sit (9 years!)at the head of NATO in October. Van der Leyen herself immediately denied the rumor saying that she had absolutely no interest in the job no doubt had the rather lukewarm reaction of the Germans(!) ( According to the well informed newspaperDie Welt, Chancellor Scholtz himself is said to have put a stop to her candidacy because he does not want a GermanChristian Democrat in that post and he finds UvdL's attitude toward the Russians too tight Now Dutch former Prime Minister Rutte is mentioned as a contender and Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez is also said to be in the running, but his departure would fall on a cold stone in Spain, now that his party is embroiled in a mouth mask fraud case and his government is on shaky legs anyway. As I await the outcome of this postal carousel, I - bag of popcorn in hand- eagerly await the moment when President Macron and-why not Belgian PM Alexander de Croo take to the streets in the respective Parisian banlieues and ‘Hell hole”Molenbeek to enthuse the generation of young immigrants of Arab origin to go and fight for the fatherland (?) in a war in Ukraine.Or will it be Perhaps the sons of protesting peasants from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France who’ll be eager to fight for the governments that evaporated their heritage? In France, they are joined by the ‘Gilletjaunes’s (Yellow vests movementa protest movement that started out as a civil protest against high gas prices; they blocked highways and toll boots and were for a long time a headache for the French government) no doubt are also already donning their Gillet to occupy Ukrainian intersections to stop the Russians by setting fire to rubber car tires and wooden pallets. Judging by the reactions on BBC Radio, the British are not too eager either now that they have been plunged into an unprecedented cost of livingcrisis National Health Service is in dire straits. The young French can always fall back on Boris Vian's classic song, Le Déserteur, written in the mid-1950s between the French war in Indochina, after the French débacle at Dien Bien Phu |(Vietnam) and the war in Algeria and immediately banned from French radio:
Monsieur le Président
Je vous fais une lettre
Que vous lirez peut-être
Si vous avez le temps
Je viens de recevoir
Mes papiers militaires
Pour partir à la guerre
Avant mercredi soir
Monsieur le Président
EnglishTranslation
The deserter, by Boris Vian
Mr President, I am writing you a letter
That you will read, perhaps
If you have the time
I came to receive
My military papers
To go to the war
Last Wednesday evening
Mr President
I don't want to do that
I am not on this earth
To kill these poor people
It's not to make you angry
I must say to you
My decision is made
I am going to desert
Since I was born
I saw my father die
I saw my brothers leave
And my children cry
My mother has suffered so much
That she is inside her tomb
And she mocks bombs
And she mocks their targets
When I was a prisoner
You stole my wife from me
You stole my soul from me
And all dear to me passed
Tomorrow in the early morning
I will close my door
In the nose of the dead years
I will go down these paths
Boris Vian
Le déserteur → English translation
113 translations•
4 translations of covers
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The Deserter
I came to receive
My military papers
To go to the war
Last Wednesday evening
Mr President
I don't want to do that
I am not on this earth
To kill these poor people
It's not to make you angry
I must say to you
My decision is made
I am going to desert
Since I was born
I saw my father die
I saw my brothers leave
And my children cry
My mother has suffered so much
That she is inside her tomb
And she mocks bombs
And she mocks their targets
When I was a prisoner
You stole my wife from me
You stole my soul from me
And all dear to me passed
Tomorrow in the early morning
I will close my door
In the nose of the dead years
I will go down these paths
I will beg for my life
On the roads of France
Of Brittany and Provence
And I will say to people
Refuse to obey
Refuse to do it
Don't go to war
Refuse to leave
If you must give your blood
Go to give yours
You are a good apostle
Mr President
If you chase me
Tell your policemen
That I am not armed
And that they can shoot
I came to receive
My military papers
To go to the war
Last Wednesday evening
Mr President
I don't want to do that
I am not on this earth
To kill these poor people
It's not to make you angry
I must say to you
My decision is made
I am going to desert
Since I was born
I saw my father die
I saw my brothers leave
And my children cry
My mother has suffered so much
That she is inside her tomb
And she mocks bombs
And she mocks their targets
When I was a prisoner
You stole my wife from me
You stole my soul from me
And all dear to me passed
Tomorrow in the early morning
I will close my door
In the nose of the dead years
I will go down these paths
I will beg for my life
On the roads of France
Of Brittany and Provence
And I will say to people
Refuse to obey
Refuse to do it
Don't go to war
Refuse to leave
If you must give your blood
Go to give yours
You are a good apostle
Mr President
If you chase me
Tell your policemen
That I am not armed
And that they can shoot
Je ne veux pas la faire
Je ne suis pas sur terre
Pour tuer des pauvres gens
C'est pas pour vous fâcher
Il faut que je vous dise
Ma décision est prise
Je m'en vais déserter
Depuis que je suis né
J'ai vu mourir mon père
J'ai vu partir mes frères
Et pleurer mes enfants
Ma mère a tant souffert
Elle est dedans sa tombe
Et se moque des bombes
Et se moque des vers
Quand j'étais prisonnier
On m'a volé ma femme
On m'a volé mon âme
Et tout mon cher passé
Demain de bon matin
Je fermerai ma porte
Au nez des années mortes
J'irai sur les chemins
Je mendierai ma vie
Sur les routes de France
De Bretagne en Provence
Et je dirai aux gens:
Refusez d'obéir
Refusez de la faire
N'allez pas à la guerre
Refusez de partir
S'il faut donner son sang
Allez donner le vôtre
Vous êtes bon apôtre
Monsieur le Président
Si vous me poursuivez
Prévenez vos gendarmes
Que je n'aurai pas d'armes
Et qu'ils pourront tirer