Further Corner perusal...

...brings up an article along the lines of the semi-popular "let's stop bashing the French" bleat, this time under the guise that it's "evil" to hold the French accountable for having surrendered to the Germans:

Obviously, in 1995, "cheese-eatin' surrender monkeys" was funny for different reasons; it was absurd to think anyone - 50 years after World War II - holds a nation accountable for exercising a basic instinct of survival.

"(It's) a tad unfair, if you look at what the French were faced with," said Dr. Gael Graham, associate history professor at Western Carolina University.

Western Carolina?

The French surrendered in World War II rather than face state-of-the-art, seemingly unbeatable German tanks.

They could have easily stopped Germany from illegally reoccupying the Rhineland in 1936, when they were much the superior force, simply by announcing their intention to oppose Hitler, and they chose not to bother, then capitulated in record time in 1940. The hell with them.

"There's a sense in this country that we saved the French," Graham added. "We didn't do it alone, and we didn't mostly do it."

Sorry, Gael, your grasp of WWII history seems even tetchier than mine.

And aren't we presently telling Iraqis that surrender is a good thing, even admirable in the face of state-of-the-art, seemingly unbeatable coalition forces?

Yes. But we outclass the Iraqis militarily by a damn sight more than the Germans outclassed the French--nor are we seeking lebensraum from them.

The French, if anything, are cheese-eatin' noncompliance monkeys.

Can we at least agree France should be further down on our bashing list, behind al-Qaida, Iraq, Iowa, large-market sports franchises and Germany?

No. We can't. And you can stuff your can't-we-all-just-get-along tripe right up your ass.