America is not the only power but it is a military fact that France is a rather minor power.
France can only project decisive power beyond its own shores against small mobs such as the ones in the Ivory Coast.
When challanged by the Serbian militias in Bosnia, the French were powerless to impose a military outcome and were forced to impotently wait until the United States of America, yet again, solved their military problems for them.
France hates the U.S., not because the U.S. has hurt France, but because France feels humiliated that the U.S. saved them so many times in the 20th Century.
Two French soldiers sit handcuffed together in the Grbavica district of Sarajevo, May 29, 1995.