France lost 1,397,800 men killed in World War 1 and 217,000 in World War 2. A sense of balance might be in order for the French. Did they perhaps think that this was going to be a war where nobody was killed or wounded on their side?
I beleive that the reason France and Great Britain are such messes right now is that almost all of their warrior class (i.e., conservatives) were killed off in two World Wars and what was left is what they’ve got now.
More thn enough reason to “make the other poor bastard die for his country.”
They also lost over 90,000 in the first Vietnam war