L-H,
In Bosnia, Kosovo and, to a lesser extent, Iraq, I found that at an operational and arguably strategic level, the US would sometimes engage in exceptionally nefarious deception of their so called Allies. I won't go into details, but some US activities in Bosnia were probably the worse example of this where they proved more than willing of placing Allied nations lives at risk to achieve their own narrow aims.
Whilst I wouldn't trust the French govt per se, I've always found the French military very no nonsense operators who could be trusted.
For many years I felt our interests were best served focusing towards North America rather than Europe. My op experience, and particularly the way the UK has been sucked into Iraq on the coat tails of the US, increasingly push me towards a more European stance.
Regards,
MM