Let me expand on this. I am in no way saying that France is the best country on earth and that the French are free of any weaknesses. What I’m saying is that I am sick to death with people calling them cowards. Cowards they are not. They are a proud people with a huge history and hold a place in history past, present and future which can rival that of any great country on earth.

They are a rational people as opposed to a people enclined to follow its guts and Independence-Day-like rhetoric at the first sign of trouble.

Talking about wars, do not forget that the whole of europe in its 2000 years of history has seen more deaths through wars, genocides and various other horrors than the US ever will. This weight on our (Europe’s) shoulder combined with the 1,000,000 million death of the first world war, the 700,000 or so deaths of the second world war may go some way to explain France’s reluctance to engage in a conflict without careful thinking and , yes, reasoning.

Do you only realise how much in the shit the US is at the moment? With borrowing at an all time high, two natural disasters of epic scale to deal with running into billions of dollars, a war in Iraq it is incapable of finishing and a conflict in Afghanistan it doesn’t even know how to deal with?

You say "after the dirty work was done" it is NOT done. Look at the state of Iraq!!! It's a total mess. THAT is the reason why France wanted to use diplomacy in the first place.