"I think that the French people are our friends, but the leadership and the elite are hopelessly corrupt."
You're living in cloud cuckoo land mate or obviously haven't met many Frenchies lately. Your average Frenchman believes in & backs it's countries socialist policies wholeheartedly and is as anti-US as you'll find in Europe.
I had a conversation recently with a French guy (married to an English friend of ours, lives in the UK, quite intelligent, good job, etc). His opinion of Americans is summed up in his statement...
"They want us all to eat McDonalds hamburgers and drink Coca-Cola" (No kidding, this is word for word what he said)
Also, while there are of course exceptions, generally the French are self serving, self centred, greedy little cowards. History proves this.
I have to agree with you, mate. I'm unfortunately in a positionm not of my choosing, who is a green card holding resident alien here in the U.S. and he is like a caricature of what a craven, greed-filled, snobbish, drunken frenchman who complains about his liver would be.
Ooh! That doesn't even begin to describe this man. La Bas A La Francais! Bessez mon cul.