No one can take away the love of freedom of the French - Viva La France

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France was the first ally of the American colonists who sent advisers and resources to help General Washington win the American Revolution.

The gift by France to the United States of the Statue of Liberty remains one of the most iconic symbols of the USA to this day.

Among our greatest allies in Europe including England, Germany, Spain, and Italy, France is our only major European ally who never fought a war against the USA.

Yesterday France came under terrorist attack because a French magazine made fun of Mohammed and Allah in cartoons just as the French have been doing since the days of Napoleon.  Napoleon once said a cartoonist in Paris did more damage to his reputation than all the armies he fought.

Ten French journalists and two French police were dead in the carnage while 11 more suffered injuries in this brazen assault by the radicalized terrorists in the heart of Paris.  It was the worst terrorist action in France since the Algerian war ended in the 1960's when the entire world seemed to be at war.

While newspapers like The New York Times declared, "The mood of failure and paralysis is widespread in France," the French people were far from intimated, far from intent on punishing all followers of Islam for the actions of radical extremists, and the people showed it.

Rather than cower in their homes and offices after the brutal attack thousands in France took to the streets to declare WE ARE NOT AFRAID and I AM CHARLIE in massive demonstrations that quickly spread throughout France, Europe and the rest of the world.

The Paris based magazine or newspaper, Charlie Hebdo published the cartoons and had already survived a firebombing that destroyed their headquarters in 2011 in retaliation for satirical cartoons they published.

No radical terrorist in this day and age will ever silence or intimidate the French people because freedom, liberty, equality, and brotherhood flows in their blood and molds their character.

Thank you the people of France for continuing to put democratic principles, freedom, and equality above all other secular concerns.

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Obama Should Meet Russia's Putin First

Foreign policy is going to be a very big deal in the new Obama administration and one of the lingering problems from the post Cold War period is our relationship to Russia. So you thought the Cold War ended back in the early '90's with the fall of the Soviet Union? So did I.

But something happened in Russia on the path to freedom as the world's other superpower was going through a meltdown with the collapse of Communism. Along came the USA promising all kinds of help if only Russia would become a democratic nation with free elections and free press.

This is a country whose people had lived under the protective dominance of Communists or Tzars for over 1000 years. A nation that stood by helplessly as over 62 million of their own people vanished at the hands of their leader Joseph Stalin. People dependent on a system that provided for them from cradle to grave.

With our encouragement they held elections, privatized much of their society and commerce, and started to charge through taxes for all the services people had grown to expect. The result, it took ten years to nearly destroy the once proud people, to reinvigorate the shell of the Communist party, to discover much of the privatization only put ownership of their industry and resources in the hands of professional thieves and to pretty much demonstrate that democracy was a long ways away.

So all the reforms started to be undone and the county put back together and suddenly a new Russia emerged under the firm guidance of President Vladimir Putin. What is our response to the revitalization of a major player in world affairs? The Bush administration decides to infuriate the new Russia by encouraging the former East European members of the Soviet Union to join NATO, a defense alliance of countries bribed by America through foreign aid.

Didn't Bush people know the Cold War was over? About 20 years ago, when his dad was president, the Soviet Union dissolved and the Cold War ended. Why did the kid treat Russia 20 years later as an adversary rather than a friend? Then we complained about the loss of rights in Russia, suppression of the media and the control of huge oil reserves.

When oil producing nations aided in driving the price of oil through the roof Russia helped keep the price from destroying the world by increasing production and ignoring OPEC efforts to control the world oil supply thus maintaining record prices. How do we reward our old friends? Over strenuous objections from Russia Bush decides we need a missile defense shield built in Chekoslavakia aimed at the Russians. Our current satellites can read cigarette packs from outer space, what is the point of a defense shield in Eastern Europe except to upset Putin.

Well we certainly did upset Putin and he invaded Georgia, a move we also attacked. Somewhere along the line our leaders forgot that the people of Russia are our friends, not enemies. We forgot that Russia once saved the USA from extinction in the Civil War without ever asking anything in return. A desperate plea for help from President Lincoln resulted in Russia stopping England and France from attacking the seriously weakened Union Army as it was being driven far north by Lee's Army.

Now we have a new president. He has also ignored our fractured relations with Russia and kissed up to the traditional allies of the USA. Let us hope he has the insight and wisdom to stop what Bush began, chest-thumping in the face of the Russians, and will sit down for meaningful discussions with a friend and ally from long before the days England and France decided to be our friend.