What a weird thread....
Concerning the EU: There was a time where it looked like, against British opposition, the German-French Tandem may transform it into a more "nation state" like thing.
Than the US/UK succesfully got in a bunch of Trojan Horses, also known as Poland and the Baltic countries, who are largely US satellites, and promplty started to piss of Russia.
Concering French military history: It had its good days, it had its bad days. Its bad days are significantly overstated in the "American public image", the US employ the "overstate your enemies, understate your allies" PR apporach to almost totally ridiculous matters.
Please bear in mind that France unified very early, meaning that, throughout the Rennaisance and the early modern times, one always needed a coalition to fight them.
The only other true nation states in that period were the Dutch, England, and Spain, all of them waged war against each other as often as against France.
Austria rarely commited to agressive warfare, their own position was often precarious and they had to care much more about their diplomatic status than the French did, since the amount of support the German states gave them heavily depended on the perceived legitimacy of their actions.
Russia and the Scandinavian countries tended to have other interests than France, although France had a history of using the Scandinavians as proxys. They first subsidized the Danish intervention during the 30 years war, then they subsidzed Gustaf Vasas Swedish intervention in the 30 years war, then they got pissed and did it themselfs, reaching their goals with relative ease.
Concerning the Iraq war: 1: It was against European interests, especially because going into Iraq indicates that one also wishes to go into Iran, a big no for continental European powers.
2: The public opinion was fiercely against the war
3: Precisly what would France or Germany gain in case of a victory? Most likely not much at all, since beeing the junior partner sucks in the "divide the spoils" game. We Euros obviously dislike beeing blown up by terrorists, for that reason we are in AFG. Irak had nothing to do with 9/11 period.
4: The US cited WMDs of Iraq, terrorist links to Al Quaida and the "evilness of Sadamm" as their Casus Belli. Noone disputes Sadamm beeing an a-hole, the WMD thing in Iraq was believed to be true, but the Al-Quaida Iraq link was ridiculous from the get go. Toppling secular gouverments in the middle east is Al-Quaidas main and loudly stated goal, the notion of Al Quaida allying with the most secular state of the middle east (baring Turkey, which is a different thing) was nuts, for me at that time I was like:
"Hmm, OK Sadamm is an arse, he may have WMDs, and the USA blatantly lies about alleged Terrorist links." The obvious and Blatant terrorist link lie also created doubt concerning the other Casus belli.
5: Beeing pro peace and agaisnt Bush was key for Schroeder to get reelected.
