SaSless: You tread heavily on delicate sensibilities.
Here in the UK, war with France is the normal state of affairs. We have been at war with France for much of the past thousand years. The 20th century was the only one in the last millennium where we did not have a major war, or wars, with France - and that was only because the Germans usurped their position. In fact, we have in the relatively recent past been at war with France for an unbroken period of one hundred years. In all our celebrated victories - Waterloo, Trafalgar, the Nile - it was the French that won second prize.
On the positive side, they make a decent cheese.
Consider the position of your own Mr Washington, who began his military career fighting the French at Fort Duquesne. He then inveigled them into fighting his battles for him, forged a nation and ended his military career at the head of an American army that was preparing to fight the French.
As to your crack about European defence, last time we had major turbulence, between 1939 and 1945, the French sat the whole thing out.