When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was
asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an
example of 'empire building' by George Bush. He answered by saying, 'Over
the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women
into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount
of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did
not return.'
It became very quiet in the room.

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Then there was a conference in France where a number of
international engineers were taking part, including French and
American. During a break one of the French engineers came back into the
room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has
sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What
does he intend to do, bomb them?' A Boeing engineer stood up and
replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat
several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency
electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the
capacity to feed 3, 000 people three meals a day, they can produce several
thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry
half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and
from their flight deck..
We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'
Once again, dead silence.

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A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included
Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At
a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of
Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was
chatting away in English a s they sipped their drinks but a French admiral
suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans
learn only English.' He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to
speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied 'Maybe it's
because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you
wouldn't have to speak German'.
You could have heard a pin drop