Article

2003-12-04 Europe

French News: 1700 ~~French~~ U.S. troops desert, 7000 more go looney tunes

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Posted by possecommietaters 2003-12-04 4:43:05 PM|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 The Canard Enchaine is something like a gossip paper. It also has a tick for the politician (specially if he is right wing) is ever wrong: let's imagine politicain says earth is flat and later says it again, The canard will flame him for persisting in being wrong, let's assumme the politicain says Earth is round then the Canard will flame him for not being consistant.

However in intzernal French politics it plays a role as instrument for low blows: let's imagine politicain wants to get rid of a rival in his party and knows something dirty about him, he will pass the info to the Canard and this will publish it. Except if the Canard owes him a favour: tyhe former minister of Foreign Affairs was involved in several scandals but he had been the lawyer from teh Canard. There was never a line against him...

And of course much of what is published in Canard is just noise

Canard was created by anti-war anarchists during WWI and since then has been constant in his job of destroying faith in democracy and spreading cynism.

Posted by JFM 2003-12-4 5:27:50 PM|| 2003-12-4 5:27:50 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 So is that why we call a political smear a canard?

Posted by Atrus 2003-12-4 5:35:08 PM|| 2003-12-4 5:35:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 The presentation is poor but the numbers might be accurate in some ways. To have 1700 short term UA's (unauthorized absences) in a huge deployment that has lasted over a year. One ship alone may have 50 UA's brought to Captain's Mast (non-judicial punishment) in a year. Guys who missed a ships movement or were too drunk to report for duty in the morning.

"The magazine also said that 7,000 U.S. soldiers have left Iraq allegedly due to psychological troubles and other illnesses." We have probably pulled out a good number flu cases. We know there were a bunch of pnemonia cases. I'm sure a good number of these troops went no farther than Kuwait and others went to Germany for short durations.

The numbers are probably true but the magazine emphasizes mental illness in it's medical statistic and gives a minimum of amplyfying information as possible on the deserters.

Posted by Super Hose 2003-12-4 6:00:29 PM|| 2003-12-4 6:00:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 SH -- of course they emphasise those points; they're a propaganda rag.

Honestly, though, I think it's more likely their source is al'Jazeera or al'Arabiya. I seem to remember one of them carrying a story like this.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2003-12-4 6:13:12 PM|| [http://www.kloognome.com] 2003-12-4 6:13:12 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Never trust an organization that has "canard" in its title.
Webster on line: Canard : a false or unfounded report or story; especially : a fabricated report.
That about covers it.

Posted by Gasse Katze 2003-12-4 6:25:30 PM|| 2003-12-4 6:25:30 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 I always thought a canard was a truism that you didn't think was true. "Never get into a land war in Asia." See, if you didn't think this was good advice, you'd call it a canard.

Actually, in this case, a canard is a duck. JFM can translate "enchaine". I thought it meant "chained", but babelfish didn't know.

Posted by Angie Schultz 2003-12-4 7:40:13 PM|| [http://darkblogules.blogspot.com] 2003-12-4 7:40:13 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Hmmmm. In aviation, a canard is a wing - usually a small wing used to provide additional control. The Concorde and TU-144 both had canards just behind the cockpit to provide better control on takeoffs and landings. Some aircraft have canards under the rear fuselage to compensate for over-control of the tail assembly. Can't imagine how that came out in French as "duck"...

Posted by Old Patriot 2003-12-4 9:12:51 PM|| [http://users.codenet.net/mweather/default.htm] 2003-12-4 9:12:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Angie you're correct,the denotation of of canard is 'duck' however the Etymology,according to M-W is: French, literally, duck; in sense 1, from Middle French vendre des canards Ã moitiÃ© to cheat, literally, to half-sell ducks Date: circa 1859
It's possible that the usage in English came from over 85 years of articles like this in the Canard Enchaine.
Angie you're right about chains,but referring to M-W:Etymology: Middle English encheynen, from Middle French enchainer, from Old French, from en- + chaeine chain Date: 14th century
: to bind or hold with or as if with chains
The chains are not necessarily literal.

Posted by Gasse Katze 2003-12-4 9:27:07 PM|| 2003-12-4 9:27:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Bloody chained up duck it sounds to me. Bunch of perverts perverting the news. How Peshawarish, heh heh.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-12-4 9:47:20 PM|| 2003-12-4 9:47:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 "Le canard enchainÃ©" = litterally "the chained duck"; actually, this is a joke, since "canard" also means "newspaper" in familiar french, and that many newspapers are named "XXXX libÃ©rÃ©" (the liberated XXXX), "La libre XXXX" (the free XXX), etc, etc... So, "Le canard prides itself of being an "enslaved newspaper".
Btw, I like that canard, but it is violently antiwar, mostly antichurch & "anarchist", and not too "US-friendly", so, yes, this IS propaganda.

Posted by Anonymous 2003-12-5 4:52:50 AM|| 2003-12-5 4:52:50 AM|| Front Page Top

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