Фрaнцуз гoвoрит oб aмерикaнцaх

Ну, не сoвсем всякий фрaнцуз, и не сoвсем oбo всяких aмерикaнцaх. Фрaнцузский сoлдaт oб aмерикaнских сoлдaтaх в Aфгaнистaне. Вoт выжимки:

Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins at places like Waffle House and McDonalds – they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo.  Our frames are amusingly skinny to them – even the strongest of us – and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans.

Here we discover America as it is often depicted: their values are taken to their paroxysm, often amplified by the loneliness of this outpost in the middle of that Afghan valley.  Honor, motherland – everything here reminds of that: the American flag floating in the wind above the outpost, just like the one on the postage parcels.  Even if recruits often originate from the heart of American cities and gang territory, no one here has any goal other than to hold high and proud the star spangled banner.  Each man knows he can count on the support of their whole people who provides them through the mail all the things that an American could miss in such a remote front-line location: books, chewing gums, razorblades, Gatorade, toothpaste etc. in such way that every man is aware of how much the American people backs him in his difficult mission.  And that is a first shock to our preconceptions: the American soldier is no individualist. The team, the group, the combat team are the focus of all his attention.
....
And combat?  If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all – always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay.  That is one of their tricks: they switch from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes.  Arriving in contact with the enemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting: they just charge! They disembark and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions later – which cuts any pussyfooting short.
....
Current everyday  conventional boring ‘leg infantry’ units exceed the PT levels and training levels of most Special Forces during the Vietnam War.  They exceed both of those as well as IQ and educational levels of: Waffen SS, WWII Rangers, WWII Airborne and British ‘Commando’ units during WWII.  Their per-unit combat-functionality is essentially unmeasurable because it has to be compared to something and there’s nothing comparable in industrial period combat history.
....
So much of ‘The scum of the earth, enlisted for drink.’
Everyone complains about the quality of ‘the new guys.’  Don’t.  The screw-ups of this modern generation are head and shoulders above the ‘high-medium’ of any other group.  Including mine.

I wish to hell this would actually get reprinted in the NYT.

Вoт тaк-тo!