Hello, Slogger, I think you have been reading the American joke sites too much.
They got really cross when the French (Freedom fries anyone?) said to George W "No, don't want to join in, we see no evidence that they've got weapons of mass destruction; we don't believe it will be quick and easy; we don't believe we can just set up a friendly government, and that everything will be great." Perhaps it was more comfortable for the American to create their own myth that the French wouldn't play because they were cowards.
Sadly on this occasion George W was wrong and the froggies were right. The Halliburton Oil war is still going on, casualties are high and rising, and the US has more enemies now than when they started.
The French (and most European nations) have a tendency to avoid un-necessary wars where possible, due to their experiences. In WW1 France had 8.4 million men mobilised, 1.3 million soldiers killed, 4.2 million soldiers wounded). During WW2 the proportion of the population killed was also far far higher than US casualties, and the entire population had personal experience of warfare.
If George W had not spent his part-time service during the Vietnam War bravely stationed in Texas, he might have been less enthusiastic to have a war using other men's sons.
