[Skybird]

All these jokes about the French running at first glance of an enemy imply they are incapable to fight and too afraid to fight. Thats the point of the "joke".

As I use to say, there are only two or three war-capable armies in Europe currently: The British, the Turks, and in parts the French with their foreign legion.

French politics always, imo at least, is carried by underhandedness and diplomatic intrigues and conspiracy against claimed allies and friends. I do not trust them and their foreign diplomacy, not one bit. And of course their rejection of DeGaulles understanding of the needed tactics for the new tank weapon was a folly for which they paid dearly, the Germans plowed them under as a result although on the material side the German Wehrmacht was inferior and the French had better tanks and better entrenchements. German tactics made the difference.

I do not get where this constant mocking of the French for their implied running from the enemy is coming from. I attribute many qualities to their army, not all of them compliments. That they do not set up a fight is none of them, however, and their intel operations are amongst the most robust - and "unshy", to put it this way - in the Western world. They had their defeats in modern times, yes. But those had the US army as well.