French naivete.

The French today were the lone voice within NATO refusing to deploy troops in order to stop the genocide in Darfur. You may at first think the French to be silly, hypocritical cowards, who care nothing for anyone in the world, bar themselves, and that their only use for the outside world is to bilk them financially through the EU farm subsidies, and to huddle next to them for military protection, as in WWII and the Cold War.

Why would you ever think that?!?!

Actually, in this case, the French are staying true to their roots: all bark, no bite. Diplomacy first and last. They want equal footing in NATO, but refuse to join the military command. They then refuse to join in any military excursion to stop the massacre of innocents in Darfur. This is actually consistent. Of course, as Emerson said, "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

During the massacre in Rawanda, the U.S., U.K., and France all stalled, and 500,000 Rwandans were killed. In Darfur, the U.S., and the U.K. have explicitly learned from their Rwandan failings and pledged a defensive force should NATO deem it necessary. The French seem to think that the Rwandans should have taken care of it themselves, as should the Sudanese. Maybe they're right, but if so, they shouldn't be so damn sactimonious about a decision to let poor starving people to be raped and tortured to death.

The mindset that France seems to tout is one in which all action is stymied by endless chatting and occasional fiscal threats, until the hostile power is talked into submission. Sometimes it works when accompanied by an armed resistence (S. Africa), sometimes it doesn't (WWII). The problem is that an unconditional, unwaivering dogma of the power of diplomacy inevitably fails at least once, and without the flexibility and militarism of allies, the dogmatic becomes extinct (don't cry).

This is true of many dogmas, but the French inability to see their own wreckless stubborness has led them to the brink of disaster more than once. Francophobia is born of the French self-righteous naivete.

At least the Swiss acknowledge their dependency. Were the French to do the same, resentment of the French would devolve into light farce.