Michael Ledeen says it just right:

The French have always been a pain. DeGaul was a pain. Everybody since DeGaul has always been a pain. It plays well with French politics as in Germany. As we've seen, Chancellor Schroeder was re-elected largely because of his anti-American campaign and played well with their domestic politics also.. . .

But you know, the driving force, I maintain between French and British rage is that they have become irrelevant and they know it, and they hate it. And every time there is a modern war, they are exposed as being unable to participate.

Because they lack military technology. Because they right at the end of the Cold War, they opted for social services and welfare stateism all over Europe, and they opted out of defense. So, they don't spend any -- they spend 1 percent of their budget on defense, which is not even enough to pay the salaries of the people they have in uniform in most of the European countries. So, they can't fight a modern war.

Another reason why I never miss Brit Hume.