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Subject:
From:
"Barber, Kenneth L." <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
St. John's University Cerebral Palsy List
Date:
Wed, 26 Feb 2003 18:28:19 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
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i do not know that this is a real letter.

An actual letter sent home from a Marine with the multinational
force in Bosnia:

Dear Dad,

  A funny thing happened to me yesterday at Camp Bondsteel (Bosnia).

A French army officer walked up to me in the PX, and told me that he
thought we Americans were a bunch of cowboys and were provoking a
war in Iraq. He said that, if such a thing happens, we wouldn't be able to
count on the support of France.

  I told him that it didn't surprise me.  Since we had come to
France's rescue in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and the Cold War,
their ingratitude and jealousy was due to surface [again] at some point in
the near future anyway. I also told him that's why France is a third-rate
military power with a socialist economy and a bunch of pansies for soldiers.

  I additionally told him that America, being a nation of deeds and action,
not words, would do whatever it had to do, and France's support, if it ever
came, was only for show anyway.  Just as in ALL NATO exercises, the U.S.
would shoulder 85% of the burden, and provide 85% of the support, as
evidenced by the fact that this French officer was shopping in the American
PX, and not the other way around.

  He began to get belligerent at that point, and I told him that, if
he'd like to, I'd meet him outside in front of the Burger King and whip
his behind in front of the entire Multinational Brigade East, thus
demonstrating that even the smallest American had more fight in him
than the average Frenchman.

  He called me a barbarian cowboy and walked away in a huff.

  With friends like these, who needs enemies?

 Dad, tell Mom I love her,

 Your loving daughter,

 Mary Beth Johnson
 LtCol., USMC

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