By Louis Perez y Cid
There are debates that, beneath a veneer of obviousness, conceal a deeper confusion. Islam is one of these, less a clearly defined object than a revealer of the uncertainties of our time.

In Europe, it has become difficult to speak of Islam without succumbing to the sterile alternative of either idealism or denunciation. As the word gains prominence in the public sphere, it seems to lose in precision what it gains in emotional charge. It designates, by turns, a faith, a culture, a civilization, sometimes a threat, and ultimately, through its contradictory uses, becomes nothing more than a sign of our own anxieties.

Yet, any serious reflection presupposes, first and foremost, an effort at distinction.
Islam is, in principle, a religion. As such, it involves beliefs, practices, and a relationship to the sacred. But, like the great religious traditions throughout history, it is not limited to this inner dimension; it is also embedded in social forms, legal legacies, and political structures... Read more...

This isn't quite a history of the Legion. It's a collection of anecdotes.
These pages recount situations, atmospheres, and men.
Simple, absurd, tense, or unexpected moments. There's commitment, mistakes, and silences too. And sometimes, yes, absences.
Nothing is embellished. Nothing is resolved either. It's told as it comes.
Those who know will recognize. The others... will see for themselves.

"I want people to understand, as soon as they pass through this door, that they are entering a regiment." Colonel Blevin, Commanding Officer of the 1st Foreign Regiment
Towards the end of the 1990s, the colonel had a daily frustration. It didn't come from headquarters, inspections, or even the budgets, which, in the army, is practically a miracle... Read more...

By Christian Morisot

It seems to me that The Abandonment is unsettling because it dares to show what our era prefers to avoid.

Not through slogans or militant rhetoric, but through silences, glances, and acts of renunciation.

Because changing words doesn't transform reality.
One can multiply rhetorical precautions and shift responsibilities to the margins of language; the core issue remains: Islamism kills.

The film says nothing else—and in this, it echoes the words of many Muslims who supported Samuel Paty before fear prevailed.

The dishonesty of some of the criticisms leveled at the film lies in conflating criticism of fundamentalism with an attack on a religion. As if it had become impossible to distinguish a faith lived peacefully from a totalitarian ideology that instrumentalizes this faith to impose fear and silence... Read more...

Our friend and comrade Ch. Morisot found a text online that could be titled "The Silence of the Veterans." He asked me for my opinion on it.

My response appears after his text.

By an anonymous author

"Former legionnaires are often asked why they don't talk about their service in the Legion, why they remain silent.

The civilian world only perceives the Foreign Legion through the lens of novels, films, and popular culture. This myth, which invariably shrouds it, creates an illusion a world away from lived reality. The true reason for the veterans' reserve is much deeper: what one experiences in the Legion is impossible to convey to the home front... Read more...

By Louis Perez y Cid
Our friend, Captain (ret.) Gérard Roux, president of AALE 63, Puy-de-Dôme, has shared this book with us, the work of one of its members of over fifteen years, Jean-François Pelletier.

When the author published "The French of the Korean War" with Heimdal publishers, he tackled a blind spot in French military history.
The Korean War remains a largely forgotten conflict in France, overshadowed by both the Second World War and the colonial wars that followed. In this respect, the book already possesses a crucial merit: that of bringing to light the commitment of the French Battalion of the UN and restoring the memory of these volunteers who went to fight on the other side of the world between 1950 and 1953. ...Read more...