A question: are the charges from the two Muslim Algerian women reliable? Considering what a nest of snakes that unfortunate country is, I would imagine that a false charge of rape against an American would be easy to make and highly appreciated.

As a matter of fact, Nazi Germany DID invade Vichy France - in November 1942, after the Anglo-American landings in French North Africa, which led the Nazis to worry about French loyalty. Of course, the invasion had the exact opposite effect: it completely discredited the remains of the Petain government, and turned what had until then a rather anaemic French Resistance into a nationwide phenomenon. This piece of history should be taught to all appeasers. Petain was the ultimate appeaser: he was sure that if he gave Hitler what he wanted, Hitler would leave him alone and support him. Instead of which, he not only ended up a virtual prisoner of his supposed friend, but was completely discredited in the eyes of his own nation, and ruined his own cause. (For Petain had a definite ideology for which he was willing to fight - an authoritarian, militaristic version of Catholicism; and the disgraceful collapse of his government led to the ultimate collapse of the Catholic Church in France. A lesson to anyone, of whatever colour, who thinks that anything is important enough to justify appeasement.)