Comments by "peabase" (@peabase) on "What will the withdrawal of French troops mean for Niger? | DW News" video.

It means the Nigerien junta can no longer blame France. It's a national tragedy.
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Yup, these Africans should roll up their sleeves and take their destiny into their own hands. The mind boggles how the French managed to sap all the life energy out of them for generations.
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@hzlh2254 Uh, why would I spill a tear? The only reason I can think of is if I get popcorn in my eye.
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@donatta1857 I have, like all my compatriots, a squeaky-clean conscience in that respect. Since we're attributing blame at will, should I hold you responsible for Idi Amin's atrocities? Same difference.
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@davidalexsebastiank6250 Try to look forward, not to the past. We all have historical bagage. In my forebears' case, 700 years of colonisation, but we're not constantly whining about it.
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@hzlh2254 I don't have any "smelly frenchman [sic] mercenaries" in my pay, not anymore than you command foreign soldiers of fortune either. Do you see bogeymen everywhere? Have you been diagnosed? Paranoia and hallucinations, is it?
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@blolee-gc1sr Availability of uranium, a de facto commodity, is not France's problem. Global warming and consequently, cooling its nuclear plants are more of a concern. It's ironic, because nuclear energy is green energy in my book.
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@phurian_6560 We most definitely endured 700 years of colonisation. Could it be, perhaps, that you're jumping to conclusions as to where I'm from? Don't expect a Pulitzer Prize for "exposing" the colonial horrors perpetrated by France. Great that you learned about them by watching movies. I studied them in uni.
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@phurian_6560 I dropped enough hints in this thread that I'm not French. You're just not the sharpest tool in the shed.
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@davidalexsebastiank6250 Germany pays the going rate for commodities. And gives development aid rather generously.
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@sardonumspa8113 The CFA franc is a voluntary arrangement. Some African countries have already left of their own accord. Some have even (re)joined. And there's a clear roadmap for replacing the West African CFA franc with the Eco, endorsed by France and the EU. I think you need to look for a better stick to try to beat France with.
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Please give away Kashmir and Ladakh to Pakistan and China so you can enjoy peace, too. For a little while, at least.
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@davidalexsebastiank6250 Wagner killing and maiming Nigeriens is more than just moral support, me thinks.
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@briant5685 That's called pricing oneself out of the market. Economists will go tut-tut.
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@Kite-te9km We didn't have nuclear energy in the 1970s, and it's debatable if we were part of the "West" then. Sometimes I still wonder. You luuurve generalisations, don't you?
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@Kite-te9km Context eludes you.
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@theoligarchstepper You think yourself very clever, but alas... The Moorish geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi put us on his famous map (weeell, sort of), but there's no evidence that he or any other Moor ever set foot here. Having lived in Andalusia, I can tell the Moors' civilising influence would've been much appreciated. The same goes for the Romans -- no evidence of them setting foot here either. We were still hunter-gatherers then, so pickings would've been slim. The Anglo-Saxon-Germans(?) -- I'm assuming that's your roundabout way of saying "Brits" -- didn't "shaft" us either. If anything, the Brits shafted themselves when a British admiral once insisted on burning stores as part of a coastal raid, despite local merchants telling him that the goods in question were already paid for and awaiting shipment to Britain, of all places. The exasperated British admiral explained that he must burn something, so his brave seamen torched British possessions. They and the townspeople came out to witness what must've been a most spectacular Guy Fawkes Night. Global warming is less of a concern to us with our climate and post-glacial rebounding is still at work, which means the ground beneath our feet is rising faster than the sea levels. As it happens, my family owns an island that grows bigger by the year. Unfortunately, so does the land tax. We did once elect(!) a king, but the princeling renounced his throne before he could sit on it. I can assure you, with one of the most elaborate welfare systems know to man, the expense of having children is not an issue to us. There are even municipalities that give you a nice monetary reward for producing a future taxpayer. Immigration seems to work better, however. We like bathing. In fact, we're world-famous for it. OK, I've dropped enough hints. Let's see how clever you really are.
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@sardonumspa8113 So you're saying that three Nigerien post-independence generations have been unable to lift themselves up by the bootstraps because of French... force? You may want to explain that further.
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@sardonumspa8113 It is voluntary. Did France go to war with Guinea, Mali, Madagascar, and Mauritania for leaving the CFA franc? I thought not.
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@sardonumspa8113 The first country to bail on the CFA franc was Guinea, in 1960, a mere two years after indepence. That set the precedent for leaving. Did Guinea have special dispensation? No. Neither did Mali, Madagascar, and Mauritania; they just left because they felt it was in their best interest. If France disagreed, they just had to grin and bear it.
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@randygram9310 Let's entertain you for a bit. Let's assume everything hinges on US approval to stop the war, and the US would indeed grant such approval to France. How exactly do you propose France would stop the war? Here and now, only Putin can stop the war, and that's by withdrawing his Orcs from Ukrainian soil beyond pre-2014 borders.
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