On Mon, 03 Jul 2006 21:37:17 +1200, John <nickolls1@ihug.co.nz> wrote:

unit244@defencecontracts.org.uk wrote:

The British help the American forces, share intelligence, etc. Has
America become so paraniod (stupid) to not even trust one of its oldest
allies?

Getting further off topic, I know, but wasn't America's oldest ally France?

The Netherlands has a claim there too...it was the first foreign power
to recognize the United States as a country, and sold us saltpeter
from its Caribbean mines to make gunpowder.

But France went much further...without the Marquis de Layayette,
General Rochambeau's army, Admiral deGrasse's fleet and one million
livres of French money, we'd have been speaking English today...;-)

The expenditure  bankrupted the court of Louis XVI and set off
France's own revolution. Lafayette allied himself with the moderate
Girondist faction and wrote George Washington pleading for some
reciprocal support. Washington refused, the Girondists collapsed, the
radical Jacobins hijacked the revolution, France descended into bloody
chaos, and into the power vacuum rode Napoleon.

Napoleon bankrupted France yet again with his military adventures, and
sold us Louisiana to pay for them -- and the longterm result was that
Katrina hit the US instead of France.

rj