Thier influence is declining very fast as China and India become rising powers. The economy is in shambles (although maybe their new president may be able to turn things around)

Lets take a look at some of the French Military engagements over the last 1300 years. And figure out how France got a bad rap.... (bunch of crap snipped)

Had France and England stopped either Hitler or Mousilini in thier tracks in a pre emptive attack WII would have never happened because Germany, Italy and Japan were feeding off of each others terrorism of the rest of the world.

And is there any need Charles to sling mud at the republican party or grossly overgeneralize a party? Sure there are sell-out far right radical republicans, just as there are terrorist adoring radical leftists. They both exist, and anyone who denies it is either naive or a political extremist. But to add to that mix only encourages the polorization.

French Involvement

After France entered on February 6th, 1778 in the American Revolutionary War, the British naval force - master of the seas - and French fleet confronted each other from the beginning. First these navies quarreled head-on, in the English Channel and then in the entirety of the Atlantic Ocean, in a war of escorts. The ultimate outcome would be decided by the naval battle of the Chesapeake and the battle of Yorktown.

The British had taken Philadelphia, but American victory at the Battle of Saratoga brought back hope to the Patriots and enthusiasm in France. The army of Burgoyne (Britain) was defeated and France became aware that the 13 colonies could be victorious and thus decided to provide official aid to colonies. The Spanish ally was more skeptical. Vergennes and Louis XVI were considering the proposition of an American alliance through the American diplomats Benjamin Franklin, Deane, and Arthur Lee with increasing interest. The alliance between Britain and France, forged in 1763, plunged into a diplomatic crisis. The war was benefiting from popular support, La Fayette was gaining notoriety, and the avenging spirit was ready to express itself.

On the 6th of February, 1778, Vergennes and Louis XVI decided to sign with Benjamin Franklin a treaty of friendship and official alliance with the 13 colonies. France recognized the independent status of the colonies, both parties agreed that peace would not be signed separately, and the colonies engaged themselves in protecting French possessions in America. Battles were initiated in America in the Antilles.

With the entry of France into the war, Britain attempted to keep the French navy in its waters. The naval battle of Ouessant in the Channel was indecisive: The two forces eventually withdrew (British admiral Keppel). The landing of 40,000 men in the nearby English islands was considered, but abandoned because of logistic issues. On the continent, France was protected through its alliance with Austria, which, even if it did not take part in the American Revolutionary War, affirmed its diplomatic support of France.

Other nations in Europe, the "Neutral league," refused to take part. Then, after seeing France holding its own against the Royal Navy, Holland decided to side with France in 1780. The Spanish also offered their support in 1779. Britain was in a difficult situation.

The French intervention was initially maritime in nature and indecisive but was turned absolute when in 1780, 6,000 soldiers of Rochambeau were sent to America. In 1779, 6,000 French had already faced 3,000 British in the Battle of Savannah, but the French attack was too precipitated and badly prepared, which led to its eventual failure. The battle of the Chesapeake (1781) caused a part of the British fleet to flee, destroyed the remainder, and encircled Cornwallis in Yorktown, where he hopelessly awaited the promised British reinforcements. Cornwallis was trapped between American and French forces on land and the French fleet on the sea. The French alliance was crucial in the decisive victory of the Patriots at Yorktown (October 17, 1781), which could not have been achieved if not for the French Navy under Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse. After useless counters, Cornwallis formally surrendered on (October 19, 1781). The major fighting was now over and only some skirmishes were left. Britain, however, would not formally end the war until 1783.

Over important naval battles between the French and the British were spaced out around the globe. In the ensuing battles, the British and French confronted one another for the domination of the Antilles, which France lost to Britain after the 1782 battle of the Saints. The combined Spanish and French forces were able to defeat the British and successfully capture Minorca in February of 1782. In India, the Kingdom of Mysore, allied with the French, were able to successfully overpower the British. The French regained control of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon from the British in 1783. However, the Great Siege of Gibraltar was a failed attempt by the French and Spanish to regain the Gibraltar peninsula from the British.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War

I think we can learn from the French. They have an excellent healthcare system and we should learn from them about how it is run, and perhaps adopt it as a model for better health care for all Americans.

Too many people are close minded to the different ways of various parts of the world, and to our detriment we are not learning from them like we should.

All of Europe was being covered by the German war machine - the French fought with the same patriotism you have for your country.

Paris surrendered without the frech firing a single shot.

In World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed from 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War.

In the first, Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and many French soldiers were however evacuated from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo.

In the second operation, Fall Rot (Case Red), executed from 5 June, German forces outflanked the Maginot Line to attack the larger territory of France. Italy declared war on France on 10 June. The French government fled to Bordeaux, and Paris was occupied on 14 June.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_France

Germany deployed about three million men for the battle.

The German forces in the West would in May and June deploy some 2,700 tanks and self-propelled guns, including matériel reserves committed; about 7,500 artillery pieces were available with an ammunition stock for six weeks of fighting.

The Luftwaffe divided its forces into two groups. 1,815 combat, 487 Transport and 50 Glider aircraft were deployed to support Army Group B, while a further 3,286 combat aircraft were deployed to support Army Group A and C.

-Ibid

Because of a low birthrate that had even further declined during the First World War, France had a severe manpower shortage relative to the total population — which furthermore was only half of that of Germany. To compensate France had mobilised about a third of the male population between the ages of 20 and 45, bringing the strength of its armed forces to over six million men, more than the entire German Wehrmacht of 5.4 million. Only 2.2 million of these served in army units in the north though, but the total was brought to over 3.3 million by the British, Belgian and Dutch forces in that area. On 10 May there were 93 French, 22 Belgian, 10 British and 9 Dutch divisions in the North, for a total of 134. Six of these were armoured divisions, 24 motorised divisions. Twenty-two more were being trained or assembled on an emergency basis during the campaign (not counting the reconstituted units), among which two Polish (see Polish Army in France (1940)) and one Czech division. Beside full divisions the Allies had many independent smaller infantry units: the Dutch had the equivalent of about eight divisions in independent brigades and battalions; the French had 29 independent Fortress Infantry Regiments. Of the French divisions eighteen were manned by colonial volunteer troops; nineteen consisted of "B-divisions", once fully trained units that however had a large number of men over thirty and needed retraining after mobilisation. The best trained Allied forces were the British divisions, fully motorised and having a large percentage of professional soldiers; the worst the very poorly equipped Dutch troops.

- Ibid