Quatorze Juillet: France, America, and the Mexican Connection

Mexican falconers Marching Down the Champs Elysées

Tiberge at Gallia Watch has this photo up on her website with this commentary:

Just a quick look back at the July 14 parade. Mexico was honored this year, as 150 Mexican soldiers led the parade down the Champs-Elysées. Below, the Mexican falconers. A great sight.

I think Tiberge means by "A great sight" is "A formidable sight," as in "An incredible sight."

I searched on-line to find any reaction to this incredible incongruity: the president of another country honored at a national festival where the armed forces are in procession, with that president's country's ARMED FORCES joining in the parade!!!!

All the criticism I could find are about Hollande's groping hands, although I find nothing wrong with a man giving special attention to another woman with the woman's husband nearby. There is nothing wrong with admiring feminine beauty, and the "groping" is highly exaggerated.

In any case, for some strange reason (perhaps Tiberge can explain) it is a "tradition" to invite foreign forces to march in the Bastille Day parade. Of course, part of the rationale is to invite armies who assisted France, or fought with France, in the various wars through the decades.

The Telegraph explains through an image caption:

Soldiers carrying the flags of 76 countries marched down the Champs Elysées in Paris, as France's traditional Bastille Day military parade commemorated the centenary of World War I.

That still begs the question: What was the extraordinary contribution of Mexico to World War I battles that garnered them a special invitation for France's foremost national holiday?

Mexico was "neutral" during WWI, and fought in the Philippines during WWII against Japan, which hardly gives Mexico an extraordinary status in the World Wars.

Here is a commentary about inviting foreign dignitaries, and foreign armed forces, to the Bastille Day parades. It has a cautious tone:

Recently, it has become customary to invite units from France's close allies to participate in the parade. For instance, in 2004, to mark the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, British troops (the band of the Royal Marines, the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, Grenadier Guards and King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery) led the Bastille Day parade in Paris, with the Red Arrows flying overhead.[Source: Bastille Day Military Parade

The British participation in 1919 and 1939 are clearly in their capacities as allies due to the two World Wars.
[More from the same source below]

While British troops had participated in the Bastille Day parades of 14 July 1919 and 1939 (see below), this was the first occasion that invited foreign troops had actually led the parade. In 2007, the parade opened with detachments from all member states of the European Union, flying the European flag. The European anthem was played.

In fact, the Nazis did a victory march of sorts down Champs Elysées, on July 14, 1940:

German Troops Marching Down Champs Elysées, June 1940

In the Second World War, the German troops occupying Paris and Northern France paraded along the same route.

And, the importance of the 14th of July as a demonstration of national military strength was apparent when:

A victory parade under General de Gaulle was held upon the restoration in 1945 of Paris to French rule while within the period of occupation by the Germans a company of the commando Kieffer of the Forces Navales Françaises Libres had continued the French National Holiday parade in the streets of London.

De Gaulle Marching Down Champs Elysées

The News reports here that Mexico opened the parade! And adds this:

It is the first time in the history of the parade that the participation of foreign troops coincides with a state visit from the president of the invited country. Mexico is also the first country from Latin America to take part in the event.

What is strange is Hollande allowing this "state visit" to occur during France's national holiday, and "honoring" it with that country's armed forces.

The historical connection of France with Mexico is:

Maximilian (Spanish: Maximiliano; Born Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire. He was a younger brother of the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I. After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he entered into a scheme with Napoleon III of France to rule Mexico. France had invaded Mexico in 1861, with the implicit support and approval of other European powers, as part of the War of the French Intervention. Seeking to legitimize French rule, Napoleon III invited Maximilian to establish a new Mexican monarchy. With the support of the French army and a group of conservative Mexican monarchists, Maximilian traveled to Mexico where he declared himself Emperor of Mexico on 10 April 1864.[Source: Wikipedia]

Perhaps it is to expiate themselves of the long-forgotten sin that Hollande made this gesture towards the Mexicans.

But I think it is the recurring pattern of contemporary Western leaders who invite foreign elements into their countries, with the insidious intention of weakening the West by strengthening the non-Western world.

This is what Obama is doing.

Mexican Soldiers Marching Down the Champs Elysées this 14th July, 2015

The flag at the very front is the Mexican flag.

George Washington: The World Historical Figure In the Quintessentially American Tradition

George Washington, 1780
Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741–1827)
Oil on canvas; 95 x 61 3/4 in.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Part of what makes his live story so gripping is that he shaped himself into the world-historical figure he became, in the quintessentially American tradition of men who spring, as F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, from their own Platonic conception of themselves. But his self-conception was extraordinary: it began as a worthy ideal and evolved into a magnificent one. In his fiercely ambitious youth, he sought to win acclaim for his for his heroism and savoir faire. In his maturity, he strove to be, in his own conscience even more than in the eyes of others, virtuous, public-spirited, and (although his ethic wouldn't allow him to claim the word (noble). He did hope, however, that posterity would recognize and honor the purity of his motives; and Americans, who owe him so much, do him but justice in understanding not only what he did for them but also what greatness of soul he achieved to do it.

From: The Founding Fathers at Home (p. 94)
By: Myron Magnet

Anti-White, Anti-West, Anti-Canadians

From: Kidist Paulos Asrat
To: "rose.vespa@mississauga.ca"
Cc: Marian Kutarna
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 9:30 AM
Subject: Author's program IN the Canadiana Room

Dear Ms. Vespa,

I am lodging a formal complaint regarding Marian Kutarna, who oversees bookings and events in the Canadiana Room [of the Mississauga Central Library].

Ms. Kutarna gave me no reason why she and the staff of the Canadiana Room were not willing to hold an event I proposed, which was to hold a conference for the book My Battle Against Hitler by Dietrich von Hildebrand, edited by John H. Crosby and John F. Crosby, who established a literary and cultural organization,The Hildebrand Project, and who would be the guest speakers. The book is already in the Mississauga Library system, which I had submitted several months ago.

1. Ms. Kutarna's interaction with me was rude and unprofessional.

She never responded to my numerous emails about my request to plan this event (I have copies of these emails for your reference).

I had to find her in person during her working hours at the Canadiana Room to get a response from her, which was a brief "The Canadiana Room has decided not to sponsor this event."

Still, I asked via email why the research room was not able to hold my event.

She gave no detailed response, but sent me an email to repeat what she said in person: That projects are taken on by the staff of the Canadiana Room, and that is the way events are planned.

This still didn't give me any explanation as to why the project I proposed was inadequate or incompatible with the room's policies.

As a taxpaying citizen of Mississauga, I believe I require more explanation for the use of the Canadiana Room, a facility which is run by my contributions, and for the benefit of citizens of the city, like me.

Therefore, after researching Ms. Kutarna's programs in the Central Library I have come to the following conclusion:

2. Ms. Kutarna is racially choosing the events that will take place in the room.

Literary and cultural occasions that involve non-white, non-Canadian, and non-Western persons take precedence over events that benefit white, Western, Canadian and European patrons.

I am therefore reporting Ms. Kutarna as racist towards these latter groups (white, Western, Canadian and European patrons). And I will bring this to the attention of the library's heads, as well as beyond. I will also write articles in the various city and regional papers to report on these biases by the Mississauga Central Library.

2. Because of Ms. Kutarna's decision, the Mississauga Central Library has lost the visit of an important contemporary historian, who has a wide influence in intellectual, academic, historical and religious spheres, both here and in the United States, and of course for the Mississauga Library system as a whole.

3. The topic of the conference, and the presentation in the Canadiana Room would have included World War II, and how an astute German citizen was able to discern Hitler's maneuvers before many others realized Hitler's gotterdammerung aims, and how that is relevant in our era where Christianity and the West is being undermined by another remorseless enemy, Islam. Such discussion is of paramount importance to all patrons of the library who wish to preserve the West and its sophisticated culture and civilization.

Hildebrand also realized the vicious anti-Semitism of Hitler and the Nazis, and as a parallel behavior by Muslims, we are seeing a frightening rise in anti-Semitism and anti-Israel movements amongst Muslims and Islamic countries.

Here is my perspective on the contemporary lessons we can learn from Hildebrand: The Dangers of Quietism: A Contemporary View

4. This conference is going on ahead the assistance of the University of Toronto. The Hildebrand team will be coming to Canada, but all the doors have been closed off for the Mississauga Library system, and I will make sure that they will remain so.

This will deprive your library's patrons of the insights, intellect and vast amount of information that the Crosbys would have brought to Mississauga and its citizens.

If Ms. Kutarna wishes to hold her events for isolated, narrow, ethnic groups, who have no desire to attend each others' events (do Hindu Indians really attend events by Muslim Indians, and do Somalis have any interest in what Ethiopians present?), she is welcome to do so. But her "multicultural" agenda is fragmentary and exclusive. I am sure some time in the future, an angry Somali or Muslim Indian will question the methods of her "community" education.

True Canadians are interested in the depth and breadth of their history, even it it reveals some unsavory moments. The Hildebrand Project and its leaders are unafraid to tackle such issues, and I will assist them to do so to the best of my ability.

Sincerely,

Kidist Paulos Asrat

nb: I received the exact same email a few days ago. I believe Ms. Kutarna simply forgot that she had sent me the first email, and just simply re-sent the second one. She had already established that she wouldn't assist me in planning and holding the conference in the Candadiana Room.

Working in the patio of the C-Cafe (The Library is just ahead, behind the fountains)