Beat surrender?

National Review Online wanker John Podhoretz asks the oh-so-clever question:

Instead of playing the (World Cup Final) match and losing, why didn't France simply surrender the way it always does?

Really, J-Pod? Always? I wonder, does anybody who brings out the "surrender monkeys" slur even know fuck all about France's history? Because I'm hard pressed to come up with an example of French cowardice. In World War One, France held out alone against Germany in the early stages of the war and held on for four years of the bloodiest combat the world has ever seen, with 11 per cent of its entire population being killed or wounded. In World war 2, France was quickly overwhelmed by a far superior fighting force, one that bulldozed its way across all of Europe. True, France didn't do so well against the Vietnamese Communists, but we also know how that turned out for Pod-boy's U.S.A. And France also had a small problem with an Arab insurgency in Algeria, but I'm hard pressed to come up with any parallels in American history. Suggestions?

One should also note the France’s assistance was vital in allowing the American Revolution to succeed. France covertly supplied Washington with arms and ammunition and joined the war in 1778. It was the French blockade of Yorktown that prevented the British from receiving reinforcements and it was a combined Franco-American force that forced the surrender of the British garrison in that climactic battle.

If there's a country that deserves the reputation for giving up, it’s Italy. In the First World War, Italy sat on the fence in the early stages despite overtures from the Triple Alliance. Then, when things started going well for the Allies, Italy threw their lot in with the eventual victors in a brilliant display of historical opportunism. In World War Two, of course, Italy started the game on the side of the Nazis, but surrendered when the Allies took Sicily and threatened the mainland.

So, to make a long story short, the antipathy so many wingnuts hold against France as a result of the French government’s refusal to support the Iraq invasion is rooted firmly in ignorance. What a surprise.