Luis Casado*, Prensa Latina employee
Heading south from Paris, you’ll find National Route 7, a route established by Julius Caesar’s troops during his conquest of Gaul. Later there was the Hundred Years’ War, which pitted the dynasties of the Plantagenets, the Capets and the Valois and through them the Kingdom of England against the Kingdom of France from 1337 to 1453.
Wars and more wars.
It is likely that even Joe Biden has heard of Napoleon, I do not claim that he knows what the subject is about. The Corsican conquered France and Europe thanks to his artillery, which he used skillfully and lavishly. In doing so, he massacred the monarchists who opposed the remnants of the French Revolution. That and a pair of monumental cojones brought him to power: those were different times, to get to the government palace you had to have two.
His excessive ambition led him to invade Russia in 1812 and reach Moscow. But the Russians, led by Kutuzov, counterattacked. The plains of Belarus freeze over in winter, and Napoleon’s troops froze. When Napoleon reached the Berezina River, he even lost his walking style. From then on, when a Frenchman wants to say that a federal failure occurred, he simply says: “It was a Beresina.”
Tolstoy wrote his gigantic work “War and Peace”, Tchaikovsky composed his 1812 overture complete with cannon shots and Tsar Nicholas I arrived with his troops in Paris, where he lived comfortably in the Talleyrand Palace until the champagne ran out.
In the 1860s, Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon I, was bored, or he was lost in the ponds, or he envied Iena, who knows, the thing is that he was thinking of invading Mexico and having an emperor there how to use it. : Maximilian. The Mexicans, neither quick nor lazy, stopped the ranchero and had a funny idea: shoot the emperor.
A little angry and intent on revenge, Napoleon III declared. 1870 Prussia went to war… and this is what happened. The Prussians captured him in Sedan and arrived in Paris, where they took advantage of the situation to proclaim the German Empire at Versailles.
Napoleon III was sent to give birth to England and the Third French Republic was born. The same one who massacred tens of thousands of Parisian workers in the infamous Paris Commune that year. Historians say that during the Third Republic period the Yankees ruled France… (much like today).
On June 28, 1914, a young Serbian nationalist – originally from Bosnia – named Gavrilo Princip murdered the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Prince Franz-Ferdinand of Austria, and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg. Which? That’s right.
From then on, they declared war on each other with such enthusiasm that the 1st World Cup was organized. On the one hand, the Triple Alliance formed by England, France and Russia – as you read -, on the other hand the middle empires – Germany and Austria-Hungary – as well as the Ottoman Empire and the new ones. After a few beers, three glasses of sake and a bourbon (no relation to the Franco-Spanish dynasty), the Yankees, the Japanese and Pedachnok joined in.
It was a joy to see: some fought, others financed and supplied gunpowder. The worst battles were fought on French soil and Verdun still bleeds in our hearts. In the Battle of the Chemin des Dames, more than 200,000 French soldiers died thanks to the genius of their generals, who invented shooting their own troops to instill patriotism and courage in the recruits. France: the land of lights (the lighting later had to be replaced…).
The senior officers knew since then that a soldier’s chest could not withstand the bullets of a .50 machine gun.
So they came up with a brilliant idea, comparable only to the Trojan Horse trick or the evil tricks of Mata Hari: to build a wall to stop the Germans at the border. So they spent a long period of time building the Maginot Line.
When World War II began, the Germans first invaded Belgium and entered France via the direct route from Brussels to Paris: they didn’t even pay customs. The Maginot Line was never heard of again, it seems that it is now a museum. Paris fell again, half of France was occupied and the other half too, the dark night of the Nazi occupation left indelible wounds. In these dark hours, France knew only three small lights that brought hope: the resistance of the French people, Mon Général Charles de Gaulle, and the Soviet victory at Stalingrad.
It’s time to say it: The title of this note, Les Invalides, evokes not the elephant-like monument that houses Napoleon’s entrails in Paris, but the brains – admittedly they have one – of those who rule Europe today.
I have already spoken about Ursula van der Leyen and Josep Borrell. Two respected neo-fascists who devoted all their time to giving new impetus to World War III. Both are contract killers for NATO, i.e. the Empire. But there are others.
Thierry Breton, for example, EU Commissioner for Industry, who should “allow Europe to deliver a million howitzers to Ukraine”. To do this, it mobilizes “the fifteen factories in Europe capable of producing ammunition”. Meanwhile, on March 20, the Council of the European Union approved two billion euros to pay for them. Exceptionally, a team from France Télévisions was able to film its production in a munitions factory near Bourges. I cannot resist the temptation to give you this proud description of our wisdom:
“The large yellow robot arm impresses with its speed and dexterity. At the Nexter ammunition factory in the commune of La Chapelle-Saint-Ursin, near Bourges, his clamp takes the outline of a howitzer body, places it precisely on a stock, where it is polished and covered with a copper waist. Without waiting, the robot rotates around itself and swings its articulated arm. He picks up a second howitzer in a more advanced state to move it to the next tool. Without ever making mistakes, without ever getting tired or resting. In the front row to see this mesmerizing and incessant ballet, a very special visitor: the European curator Thierry Breton. “He listens carefully to the explanations of the Nexter technician, who describes in detail the fully automatic belting operations of the 155 mm howitzers.”
Better yet, French Defense Minister Sébastian Lecornu ordered the production of propellant powder for howitzers to be relocated to Bergerac. The Army plans to buy tens of thousands of howitzers each year.
This is just the beginning: the Military Programming Law (LPM) must be presented to the Council of Ministers on April 6th. The press warns: “Militaries and industrialists doubt that the promised budget increases will be enough to “transform” the army and adapt it to the context of high-intensity wars.”
The military programming law sets a spending target of 413 billion euros for the period 2024-2030, 30 percent more than the current 2019-2025 law. Nothing per se.
By the way, the mess created by the reform of the pension law in France is due to an eventual deficit that would arise within twelve years, and that would be a whopping 12 billion euros. The Pensions Guidance Council notes that the share of government wealth devoted to pensions would rise from 14.7 percent of GDP in 2020 to 11.3 percent in 2070. Really?
Meanwhile, the supplementary social security system (AGIRC-ARRCO), based on distributive solidarity and managed jointly by unions and employers, has a surplus of 68 billion euros, of which Macron’s government wants to put its hand in its pocket to recover a part.. .Employers and employees asked the Finance Minister: Yes. Do you know how the roosters crow in the north? An elegant way to ask him to visit his maternal monastery. And they decided to increase pensions because that bill belongs to workers.
The invalids, Macron and most European heads of state and government (?) prefer war. They didn’t lift a finger to promote peace. They cannot do that: these decisions are made by NATO, i.e. Washington. Neither France nor the European Union have autonomy in these matters. The EU has no decision-making authority in diplomatic or military matters. You have to ask Joe Biden, or rather the American military-industrial complex. Some humorless soul made a brief remark a few days ago:
When Napoleon invaded Russia, the affair ended in Paris. When Hitler invaded Russia, the affair ended in Berlin. Where will it end now?
But the invalids don’t know the story, which otherwise wouldn’t matter to them. For them, teachers like Heriberto Soto or “choro” Silva are just bad omens.
In my view, an essential question remains unanswered: Why is France’s political class betraying Charles de Gaulle’s quest for independence and sovereignty and seeking war?
rmh/lc
*Chilean journalist, professor, editor, engineer and information technology expert living in France
(Taken from selected signatures)