As far as France is concerned, do not forget that the French very very instrumental in assuring the success of the American Revolution. Without the French, we may still be British and swear loyalty to the queen. Scary, isn't it?
Today we have good relations with our former enemies, Germany and Japan and their allies. We are even somewhat friendly with Russia. In politics, interests prevail over friendship. Let's not discard potentially useful allies. Countries do not reject alliances because they don "like" us, but because it is not in their interest at this moment to support us. If most of the world (at least the developed world) is out of synch with our interests, perhaps we need to synchronize them, and realize that we don't live alone. We all know that it's better to have good neighborly relations than to have bad ones. Countries are no different.
And fellow FReepers as well, right? ;o)