Thanks Oggin, I am a fairly new poster on this forum and was just thinking, "Jesus! This is a tough neighbourhood."
I really think the French/NATO thing is a lot more complex than them being white flag waving surrender-monkeys. I think there is a real paranoia in France about the destruction of their culture and indentity. They see the overbearing influence of the USA in everything from movies to military. I think this makes them prickly. I guess they wanted to retain their own military identity.
Perhaps in the UK we don't understand this because our culture has to some extent been consumed by that of the US. We aren't divided by the language barrier (which is collapsing in France if my holiday experience is anything to go by) and our children worship American movie heroes and music stars. We think nothing of buying off the shelf US military hardware often to the detriment of our own industry etc etc.
Heck, I'm way out of my depth here. I'm just a simple Scot. I hope you understand the point I am getting at and how this relates to the French military and NATO