Maybe we don't disagree, but it just seems to me that is a very strange way of looking of analyzing things. There is so much talk about confidence and who believes what, both the state itself and the people and media.

You point at some things the media believes and that is of course a different question compared to what the government itself believes.

> The French I think have a much more accurate understanding of their abilities.

Funny then that they thought they can overthrow Gadafi only then to literally begged the US to intervene as they totally failed.

>The reversals they suffer have been far fewer and less disastrous than those the Americans face.

Well if you try far less you can lose less. But of course also if you have far less, even those much smaller loses are just as big a deal as the much larger loses for the US.

I must admit I am not all that informed on the details of French wars in different African countries. So I can not speak on those details.