Thanks Jed !
To quote one of Tom's most famous lines (I nearly fell off my chair when Tom explained what was happening.)

I know when I first met with the French, one colonel who was the equivalent of the French civil affairs and PSYOPs officer dismissed me in French as "an ignorant American who cannot possibly understand the real situation." He said it in French, assuming I did not understand. I looked at him, smiled, and kept saying, "Wee wee, Kernel," in Texan French, all the while hoping he might amplify his dismissal.
We already concluded, they had no clue what the real situation was.