Did you hear the pin drop?

Subject: The French

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 would not have to speak
German.'

You could have heard a pin drop!