Cheese-eating warriors: France has emerged as America’s closest European ally in security policy

[undeterred]

A DECADE ago, when France led anti-American opposition to the 2003 Iraq war, the country was seen in Washington as pesky and unreliable. President Jacques Chirac had threatened to veto the invasion at the UN Security Council, and France refused to take part in the coalition that subsequently overthrew Saddam Hussein. In a reflection of the sour political mood, the qualifier “French” was removed from “fries” at cafeterias on Capitol Hill.

Ten years on, the turnaround is arresting. For the first time since then, France and America have been carrying out air strikes in Iraq, on Islamic State targets. France was the first ally to join the American-led campaign. This week it sent extra fighter jets to Jordan, to back up those operating from a French base in Abu Dhabi. Besides its readiness to strike Iraq, France has proved hawkish on Syria and Iran, sent troops to thwart a “pre-genocidal” situation in the Central African Republic and is leading the fight against jihadism in the Sahel. “France has emerged as one of America’s most activist and steady European partners on security issues outside Europe,” notes a senior official in the White House.

Part of the explanation lies outside France. Britain is the only other European power with comparable military might, and it joined air strikes on Iraq 11 days after France. But it has become more reticent about foreign entanglements after the misadventure in Iraq and its casualties in Afghanistan. France today mixes a military capacity to project power over long distances with a political system that makes it simple for a president to send troops into battle and an enduring public appetite for such operations.

Another reason is a new political consensus in France about the need both to put troops on the line and to work with the Americans. To some observers’ surprise, the arrival of François Hollande, a Socialist, in 2012 led to continuity with his centre-right predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, rather than rupture. Mr Hollande’s party has long traded in anti-Americanism. It denounced Mr Sarkozy’s decision in 2009 to rejoin NATO’s military command, a choice that reversed decades-old Gaullist scepticism about the American-led security alliance.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21635009-france-has-emerged-americas-closest-european-ally-security-policy-cheese-eating-warriors

[Hoppy]

1. We gotta rely on cheeze-eating surrender monkeys for our defense?

We need manly, men. Not girly, girls.

[Odin2005]

2. People who think the French are wimpy "surrender monkeys" have never studies French history.

From the mid-1500s to 1870 their army was the terror of Europe, and even in 1938 their army was the most technologically advanced in the world, they just didn't expect Blitzkrieg, few did.

[undeterred]

3. I thought Cheese-eating warriors referred to the Green Bay Packers

[jmowreader]

7. They also had very militarily conservative generals

A line from Patton applies: they seem(ed) more concerned with not losing a battle than with winning one. There never has been anything wrong with the French soldier, but his leadership has been lacking on several occasions.

[Derek V]

4. Screw Jay Leno!

The French kick ass when they have to. They were smart enough NOT to follow our easily-propaganzdized asses into Vietnam With Sand Dunes.

[malthaussen]

5. Didn't do so well in Vietnam, though.

Abandoning clear and hold to bring out the guerillas into the open was a sub-optimal decision.

-- Mal

[Derek V]

6. Nobody did well in Vietnam

Especially the Vietnamese.