The French Foreign Legion is known for the battlefield exploits of its notoriously tough recruits, drawn from across the world. Yesterday it earned rather less glorious publicity after inadvertently setting fire to 1,300 hectares (3,200 acres) of scrubland around Marseilles during a training exercise.
The officer responsible was accused of stupidity after it emerged that soldiers had ignored military regulations not to use tracer shells at the Carpiagne camp near the city. The shells landed in dry bushes in high winds and temperatures of more than 30C (86F), sparking the biggest fire in the area for more than a decade.
More than 500 firefighters spent the night tackling the blaze, which resulted in the evacuation of dozens of homes, with five people suffering from smoke inhalation.
The flames came within a few metres of residential districts before being brought under control. Last night officials expressed concern that fires could spread again as strong gusts continued to blow across the region.
François Fillon, the Prime Minister of France, flew to the scene as local politicians rounded on the Legion, pointing out that it started a similar, if smaller blaze, in the same way last year.
Michel Sappin, the regional prefect, denounced the blunder as "imbecilic".
"It is unacceptable and scandalous that the soldiers continue their activities as though they didn't have a care in the world when there's wind and the conditions are dangerous," he said.
Jean-Claude Gaudin, the Mayor of Marseilles, said the unit had displayed "incredible stupidity" and called on the army to help with the aftermath of the blaze. "It must have been someone who is not from round here who took this decision," he said.
A military spokesman said the use of tracer shells in hot summer conditions was banned - although locals said the ban was breached regularly at the camp.
French defence sources pinned the blame on a warrant officer who was suspended for ordering his seven-strong unit to employ tracer rounds during the training exercise. The officer, a member of the 1st Foreign Legion Regiment, is French, aged about 40 and highly regarded by his commanders, according to a French army source.
He is likely to be placed under formal investigation for involuntary arson.
A source said that the soldiers tried to extinguish the fire when they realised their mistake, but were unable to prevent the flames from spreading.
Burning ammo in dry scrub land is a bad idea? Really?
What does defeat mean to you?
Nothing it will never come. Death before defeat. I don’t bend or break. I end, if I meet a foe capable of it. Victory is in forcing the opponent to back down. I do not. There is no defeat.
You gotta admit, it takes a lot of work to get that stupid.
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
My beefs are in science. They don't share nice like most others countries do. And they often refuse to use the same names for stuff that everyone else does. If they Chinese can share technical termanology with the west you'd think they could manage.
And of course you have to google french military victories sometime
Oh man, that's great. You don't get that kind of directness here in the states, you get overly fluffed euphamisms. Nice to see an idiot called an idiot.
I am from Austria. During my school-time we had 3 english native speakers for our english classes (one per year) and 2 french native speakers.
Most of the english native speakers were teachers to be from London and every one of them was a nice, polite and even funny guy/gal who sure were proud of their country but seemed to enjoy a modestly different culture for a while. All of them were very open minded and noone seemed to thought of him/herself as coming from a superior culture only here to educate the western barbarians.
The other one was a racist who always complained about foreigners in france, the ghettos in paris and that at one point in his young career as teacher he was forced to teach gipsys (the horror) who, according to him, are "the" most arrogant people in the world. Well self reflection sure is a wonderful thing, isn't it?
Now I know it is wrong to generalize from these few experiences but since I had those when I was very young I find it hard to find something positve about France. They think they have the monopoly on culture but to me it seems that the only thing they have more than any other nation is xenophobia.
I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite store on the Citadel.
Its rare that I believe in hating any group. However, the french easily prove the exception... them, the russians and the lazy SoBs that live off of welfare.
PS,
Fuck eating a bunch of snails and frogs... I'd much rather a good burger or steak!
