When in England at a fairly large conference,
Colin Powell was asked by the
Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq
were just an example of 'empire
building' by George Bush.
He answered by saying, "Over the years, the
United States has sent many of its
fine young men and women into great peril to
fight for freedom beyond our
borders. The only amount of land we have ever
asked for in return is enough to
bury those that did not return."
It became very quiet in the room.
******************
Then there was a conference in France where a
number of international engineers
were taking part, including French and American.
During a break one of the French engineers came
back into the room saying "Have
you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done?
He has sent an aircraft carrier
to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What
does he intended to do, bomb them?"
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly:
"Our carriers have three
hospitals on board that can treat several
hundred people; they are nuclear
powered and can supply emergency electrical
power to shore facilities; they
have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed
3,000 people three meals a day,
they can produce several thousand gallons of
fresh water from sea water each
day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters
for use in transporting victims
and injured to and from their flight deck.. We
have eleven such ships; how
many does France have?"
Once again, dead silence.
_____________________________________________________
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval
conference that included Admirals
from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian
and French Navies. At a cocktail
reception, he found himself standing with a
large group of Officers that
included personnel from most of those
countries. Everyone was chatting away in
English as they sipped their drinks but a
French admiral suddenly complained
that, 'whereas Europeans learn many languages,
Americans learn only English.'
He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have
to speak English in these
conferences rather than speaking French?'
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied
Maybe it's because the Brits,
Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so
you wouldn't have to speak German.'
You could have heard a pin drop!