Seriously, Julian Bray is as cowardly as they come.
In the dictionary, there’s a picture of Julian Bray next to the word coward

After a dozen or so French Bashing tweets and getting his rump handed to him, Julian Bray deleted most of his messages and blocked me on twitter. Dare I call this a SURRENDER?

For posterity, here is the reverse order of tweets that led to his SURRENDER.
———————————————————————

miquelon @JULIANBRAY Sore loser? Now you remove all messages and block me. Now who’s SURRENDERING?9 minutes ago from web
miquelon @JULIANBRAY I accept any political criticism, t’is fair. Just don’t make it about the French collectively.21 minutes ago from web
JULIANBRAY @miquelon many thousands of brave people died in WW2 and they should be respected , deep shame on your current politicians22 minutes ago from TweetDeck
miquelon @JULIANBRAY I guess your schtick is being offensive. I guess it’s a fair substitute to being accurate or respectful.24 minutes ago from web
JULIANBRAY @miquelon ok no monkey , will gibbon do?25 minutes ago from TweetDeck
miquelon @JULIANBRAY My ancestors were deported three times by the British from my island. In 1755, 1778 and 1793. You don’t see me bashing Britain.26 minutes ago from web
miquelon @JULIANBRAY Sarkozy made mistake. We agree, so why hold all the French collectively and perpetually guilty? Any apology for “monkey”?28 minutes ago from web
miquelon @JULIANBRAY French Bashing says more about your shortcomings. Learn the factshttp://www.Miquelon.org30 minutes ago from web
miquelon @JULIANBRAY Not about De Gaulle, it’s about the FFI, the Free French Naval Forces. Read my list of men and women from my town. They fought.32 minutes ago from web
JULIANBRAY @miquelon Think De Gaulle spent the War in london just off Baker Street and did he respect the British NON! Mon AMI!33 minutes ago from TweetDeck
miquelon @JULIANBRAY I am grateful to all allies of WW2 (UK, CAD, US, FF, SU…). Not grateful to hate-spewing twitterers who are cultural laggards.34 minutes ago from web
miquelon @JULIANBRAY You raise new issue. Why the bait and switch? You called my people “monkeys”, meaning we’re sub-human. Why the racialist tones?35 minutes ago from web
miquelon @JULIANBRAY This database has the names of 1.3 million French soldiers who died in WW 1.http://bit.ly/VGBrQ36 minutes ago from web
JULIANBRAY @miquelon OK you may respect me tell me about the refugee camp at Calais and the French Police attitude to stowaways on UK Eurostar ?37 minutes ago from TweetDeck
miquelon @JULIANBRAY Men who died for France from my town in WW 1 http://bit.ly/17dze5 …37 minutes ago from web
miquelon @JULIANBRAY Men who died for France in WW 1http://bit.ly/17dze5 …38 minutes ago from web
miquelon @JULIANBRAY List of women from my town who fought for France in WW2. http://bit.ly/3wdAmG39 minutes ago from web
miquelon @JULIANBRAY Wrong, I am a French Citizen. Not about humour but respect. Llist of men who fought in WW2 from my town: http://bit.ly/RZv3M42 minutes ago from web
JULIANBRAY @ukcomic @miquelon have so called cheese eating surrender monkey says he’s french but really a Francanadian explain brit sense ofhumourabout 1 hour ago from TweetDeck
JULIANBRAY @miquelon Well known satirical position only french have no sorry non sense of humour, D Day anniversary yesterday be grateful.about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck
miquelon @JULIANBRAY when you call the French “monkeys”, do you mean we are sub-humans?

1) Yes Allied strategy decided the liberation of Europe would happen through Italy first, Normandy second and Provence third. So in a way, the fact D-Day happened in France is determined by geography.

2) But for the men who stormed those beaches, it wasn’t about geopolitics, it wasn’t about grandeur nor was it about being pawns. The Liberation of France, and other occupied countries, was for them a justification of their sacrifice which must be remembered.

Be thankful to WWII allied veterans, be thankful by principal and by respect.
But don’t engage in self-flogging subservience to any specific country, remember we were allies, including the Soviets whose military sacrifice is too often looked over because of the atrocities of their leader.

America has been declared war upon by the Nazis and the shortest way from England to Germany was through Nomandy. Had it been possible through Portugal or Norway, would we be told that Americans sacrificed their lives to free Portugal or Norway?

Indeed. It was fighting to defeat Germany. As in defeating another country in a war? Yes?

Germany couldn’t even invade Britain from across the channel when it got bogged down in the Eastern front with the Soviets, German bombers, V-rockets had no range to cross the Atlantic ocean to reach American shores.

It certainly wasn’t thanks to the Americans. In fact, the courage of British airmen and the Channel kept them safe from invasion… two years before the russian invasion!

The USA was safe from German aggression. So, it certainly wasn’t fighting to prevent a German invasion of USA.
It certainly wasn’t safe from Japanese aggression. Furthermore, when two countries declare war on you — yes, Germany and Japan declared war on the US — what are you supposed to do? Act as if nothing happened?

it faught to liberate Europe whether some people like it or not.
Once again, no. It would have fought whether Europe was invaded or not. Its target was Germany and Japan.

As for the red herring of late entry, well the French and British practically handed over parts of Czechoslovia to keep themselves safe, so they have no right to criticise anybody else , especially non-Europeans thousands of miles away in another continent .
It is by no means criticism nor a red herring. It’s a fact: the US attacked when Japan and Germany declared war on them. Until then, the war was pretty meaningless for them, save the truckload of money they made from selling war supplies.

This was a European conflict, and the rest of the world was under no obligation to enter European wars just because Europeans think they are so important the whole world should get involved in their conflicts.
This is nonsense. Is Japan in Europe? Were the African Colonies in Europe? WWII raged as much in China as it did in France, when the Japanese invaded. It was a WORLD WAR. Your cheap shot at Europe is worthless.

Even though the USA  knew that helping the British and Soviets thorough Lend lease giving material & military aid will provoke Hitler, they still did it.  And they paid a price for supporting the British & Soviets eventually when Hitler declared war on USA after Pearl harbour.

This is ridiculous. Pearl Harbor had nothing to do with Lend-Lease. Pearl Harbor had to do with Japanese imperialism. Hitler then declared war on the US because Japan was his ally.

I don’t know if people in American and Britain refuse to acknowledge the French civilian deaths causes by their bombing campaign,  it is my experience that it is widely the case since, frankly, as an avid consumer of American and British media I simply never hear or read about it, but judging by your reaction it is definitely not something you like being reminded of.

And once again, I was only reacting to a disgusting comment made on the guardian site mocking those deaths on the one hand and justifying them to a rather strange degree on the other, the latter being I’m sorry to say  a bit, just a tiny bit mind you don’t take offense, reminiscent of one part of your latest comment.

But then again if the French military had been able to repel the German invasion of France, there would have been no need for Allied bombing of France.

It almost sounds as if you think the French people who died that day brought this on themselves.
Although of course I’m sure I am mistaken.

so they have no right to criticise anybody else

Forgive my impudence, oh master.

Of course if a country has to be liberated from German occupation, there is going to be fighting which means  casualities (both civilian and military)

The difference is that though the USA was never invaded and occuppied by Germany , it suffered casualties fighiting thousands of miles away.

Andre:  It certainly wasn’t fighting to liberate America from German occupation. Germany couldn’t even invade Britain from across the channel when it got bogged down in the Eastern front with the Soviets, German bombers, V-rockets had no range to cross the Atlantic ocean to reach American shores. The USA was safe from German aggression. So, it certainly wasn’t fighting to prevent a German invasion of USA. it faught to liberate Europe whether some people like it or not. As for the red herring of late entry, well the French and British practically handed over parts of Czechoslovia to keep themselves safe, so they have no right to criticise anybody else , especially non-Europeans thousands of miles away in another continent . This was a European conflict, and the rest of the world was under no obligation to enter European wars just because Europeans think they are so important the whole world should get involved in their conflicts.

Even though the USA  knew that helping the British and Soviets thorough Lend lease giving material & military aid will provoke Hitler, they still did it.  And they paid a price for supporting the British & Soviets eventually when Hitler declared war on USA after Pearl harbour.

I’m not sure what your point is here.
I was denouncing some offensive comment about French civilian deaths made on the guardian site.

I was certainly not trying to take anything away form the suffering the British experienced during the Blitz. And we are all aware of the sacrifice of US soldiers on French soil far away from their home.

I just wish some people would acknowledge the deaths of French civilians under allied bombings a little more and have the the decency to show some respect that’s all.

If they had been “fighting to liberate other countries from German occupation” I wonder why they basically didn’t do anything until they themselves were attacked in Pearl Harbor.

Likewise, if the U.S. attacked through France is that it was indeed the only truly reliable path they had to strike at Nazi Germany. Why? Because the short distance in the Channel allowed rapid, massive troop transport which would be ready and quite near Germany’s border.

France was then liberated incidentally. But the US did not go to Europe to free France, or they would have done so in 1940.

The Allies did drop leaflets to warn French civilians but the French did not have a system of shelters as Britain.
Not only did they not have shelters, they had no means of making them. Under the occupation there were very few things you were allowed to do, and you certainly could not expect the Germans to help.
Furthermore, the victims of the Blitz were urban population, where an underground network, as in Paris, would have allowed shelter. However, the victims in Northern France were mostly rural or semi-rural population with no underground networks to speak of.

annedemontmorency 01 Jun 09, 1:25am (about 16 hours ago)

More French civilians, 70,000 people, were killed by Allied bombs during world war two than British civilians by German bombs.

Contrast this with some figures from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum… During the war, over 77,000 Jews deported from France were murdered in Nazi camps. Of these, one-third were French citizens and over 8,000 were children under the age of 13. Therefore less French citizens died during operations to liberate them from the Nazis than the amount of Jews that the French willingly deported to their deaths in concentration camps. I suspect that Mr Beevor didn’t make the connection, n’est-ce pas?

Absolutely disgusting… they had it coming. Those cowards are lucky they are protected by anonymity; I can tell you that. Sorry anti-British prejudice is not nearly as nasty and vile as anti-French prejudice from the French.

annedemontmorency 01 Jun 09, 1:25am (about 16 hours ago)

More French civilians, 70,000 people, were killed by Allied bombs during world war two than British civilians by German bombs.
Contrast this with some figures from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum…
During the war, over 77,000 Jews deported from France were murdered in Nazi camps. Of these, one-third were French citizens and over 8,000 were children under the age of 13.
Therefore less French citizens died during operations to liberate them from the Nazis than the amount of Jews that the French willingly deported to their deaths in concentration camps.
I suspect that Mr Beevor didn’t make the connection, n’est-ce pas?

Absolutely disgusting… they had it coming.
Those cowards are lucky they are protected by anonymity; I can tell you that.
Sorry anti-British prejudice is not nearly as nasty and vile as anti-French prejudice from the French.