Yes, although ours are actually tied to the Army, the navy ones (the Fusilier Marins) adhere more strictly to the traditional role of a marine. That is : they stay on and defend our ships/board other ships.
And yes.
Yes, although the FFL is kind of its own special thing - they’re supposed to be thoroughly self-reliant and have their own tanks, air & arty, like the USMC does, so they rarely operate alongside conventional forces. They’re typically the first guys we send on foreign ops avec la bite et le couteau as we say (“with [their] dicks and knives”, i.e. making do with what you’ve got on hand) - again, much like the USMC.
But as I said, right now we’re already kinda busy doing that in central Africa. I suppose we could increase defence spending and mount new foreign regiments, but that’s not really in the cards right now (in fact a budget cut is scheduled for 2019) and in any event it would take time to train and equip the new guys.
To further drive this point home, so far it’s been reported that two of the attackers were French nationals and two were Belgian nationals. That’s half of the reported eight attackers (seven dead and they’re reportedly looking for one more who lived) already living in Europe as citizens rather than being among refugees, in addition to the proper argument you make that the attacks required enough resources to need some sort of pre-established operating groups in France and the rest of Europe.
It’s likely that much of the information either way is wrong at this point. There were initial reports of one attacker using a Syrian passport, but also reports that the Syrian passport was fake. I think we’ll see a lot of corrections later.
It’s actually pretty damn rare any nation has to capacity to wage multiple wars or wars on two fronts. The US got away with it in WWII largely because they had most of the resources of North America at their disposal and tens of millions of people from which to draw an army. The USSR could have done it because, likewise, they had vastly greater resources than average to draw on. The British Empire falls into that category, but that’s because they held vast swathes of resource-rich territory and had no issues with recruiting non-British Isles members into their Empire. Of course, these days the British Empire is but a shadow of what it once was.
At 66 million people and change France could probably summon the manpower, but they only have so much territory and resources with which to equip them. France is certainly no lightweight however you look at the country, but it would be hard pressed carry a military comparable to the US, which is why comparing it to the US is unfair. Very, very few nations could match the US in that regard, that’s sort of why the US (along with the USSR and China) is called a “superpower”.
There’s just the little detail that there is open, vicious warfare in their homeland (hence, the tide of humanity fleeing) and everyone nearby is either also at war, unstable, or unable to do much (with one glaring exception, Saudi Arabia, but as long as the oil flows they’ll do what they please and to hell with anyone else).
Government spokesfolks say the strike had been planned long before the attacks and should not be construed as any kind of tit-for-tat retaliation. Still, I expect the flyboys had at least a little “fuck you where you live” in their heart of hearts.
There’s just the little detail that there is open, vicious warfare in their homeland (hence, the tide of humanity fleeing) and everyone nearby is either also at war, unstable, or unable to do much (with one glaring exception, Saudi Arabia, but as long as the oil flows they’ll do what they please and to hell with anyone else).
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It is perhaps as much a question of this strange idea of temporary. The tide of Syrians trying to get away now has become important because they are exhausting their resources - many have been refugees since 2011 but the rsources in the Jordan camps and the Lebanon runshort.
The Syria will look like the Lebanon in this conflict, this is another 5-7 years I think. We look at basically permanent solutions. The Lebanon and the Jordan are not rich and need more support.
Please don’t take this personally, but it’s just “Lebanon” or “Syria” or France", not “the Lebanon”, “the Syria” or “the France”. For a region, yes-- it’s “The Middle East”, “The Magreb” or “The Levant”, but “the” is not needed in front of a country’s name. Unless it’s part of the name, like The United States of America, or “The [former] Soviet Union” or “The People’s Republic of China”.
I have a feeling English is not Ramira’s first language. Saying “The X” is a common construction in many languages, i.e. “Vive La France” is not, as usually translated, “long live France” but more literally “Long live The France”. So, in fact, “the” is part of the name of France… in French.
I suspect we may be seeing a breaking news update before or during night football game from President Obama or White House official on these attacks. Something is brewing at the G20.
Thank You for pointing this out as I wanted to mention this important information to prevent those with agendas against refugees from stating false facts. The identified attackers were nationals of France and Belgium, NOT Syria.
Here is an article on the military of France for those interested.
I know it’s somewhat of misconception to think France’s military is weak but in reality it is among Europe’s most powerful militaries. France also has the largest nuclear arsenal after the U.S and Russia, and is a major arms dealer in the world.
France has a nuclear powered aircraft carrier.
By the way this is an article on French presence in Africa along with a map:
France is also the fourth largest arms dealer in the world, even about to sell warships to Russia, even though the transaction was cancelled.
This is to discredit the refugees, on the part of the terrorists. So basically terrorists exploiting the fears of right wing European wackos, who in turn exploit all this against refugees.
I’m not surprised, who would carry a passport unless they wanted to leave the country? If I wanted to go on a terrorist or shooting spree, why carry my passport? Makes no sense! It’s important to get all the facts before making political shots.
(The ME religious idiots, to clarify.)