Zamuel wrote:Actually ... the bulk of the French Resistance in WWII were communists. There were a few De Gaulle sympathizers, mostly in the unoccupied territories, but they were fighting the communist resistance at LEAST as much as the Germans.
Harmattan wrote:You mean after 41, when they stopped collaborating with the Nazis as initially requested by the USSR?
There wasn't any real resistance happening until then ... Vichy was popular to begin with, Petain was a hero. The French communists were divided about respecting the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
Harmattan wrote:So by 42 the communists indeed became an important source of resistance, once the Nazis started killing them, especially through strikes under fake pretenses and sabotages, and even though they remained independent, disorganized and refused to join the rest of the resistance and its hierarchy.
Yeah, they refused to take orders from De Gaulle puppets sitting on their hands in Southern France or US / British intelligence eager to expend French blood to further their own agenda's. But they had the experience (from fighting in Spain) that De Gaulle and his handful of unreliable French officers lacked. They had their party organization already established and emplaced. And they had the numbers, especially when you consider the 3,500 escaped Spanish Maquis allied with them.
Harmattan wrote:you needed to be a man willing to dirty his hands and face danger, and you needed to be connected to one social network or another. This is not your average man.
It was however, you're "average" communist ... and it definitely wasn't limited to MEN.
I expect that you are aware that De Gaulle seized control of France only thru Allied Military support, openly persecuted communists, and HEAVILY edited the history of the French resistance. France is still recovering from "Le Charles." His meddling in N. Africa and the ME created MANY problems and much ill will that have led to a general Muslim dislike for the French ... reflected in the response to the recent Paris attack.
Zamuel wrote:Muslims (aside from the Kurds) have mounted no such popular resistance to extremism.
anasawad wrote:so a couple 100 thousands of fighters and a few 10s if not 100s of millions directing wealth to fight them does not count ??
interesting
Tell us what they have accomplished ? Besides lining their own pockets and whining about the US being responsible for all their problems ? They've got ISIS outnumbered, out gunned, and have had all the air support they could ask for ... and they can BARELY hold their own ?
There is no public outcry, no popular rejection of extremism, no acts of defiance or disruption. It looks like the Shia Militia's are only effective against women and children ... maybe the occasional old man. Not very inspiring is it ?
Zam