As to the "success" or "failure" of this campaign--how will Americans guage the outcome?--Those who are still sentient enough to want to know what's going on, that is.
And, by the way, what IS the goal? Is it the childishly fatuous goal of rooting out terrorism in the world? Vanquishing Evil? Smoking out Osama and his--perhaps tens-of-thousands--of toadies.
If so, then the French--rational as always--are correct--so far.
But I'm an American and I know that Shoeless George will have, at the very least, given Evil a bloody nose by the time the calla lillies are in bloom....
We saved their sorry assess? In round One of the campaign to make the world safe for democracy we waited until the end--until the Europeans were bled out. Most of the action took place on French soil. Imagine the soil of Ohio awash with millions of dead humans. Imagine life under those circumstances. And yet, the French maintained their culture.
Had we kept our noses out of Round One, and followed the advice of our Founders, Round Two would not have happened. England and France would have been forced to sign a very different peace accord than the one signed at Versailles. So one could accurately state that the US intervention in WWI made WWII inevitable.
In the midst of your comtempt you might also consider the fact that through all of the twists and turns of their history, the French have managed to maintain a recognisably French culture and French way of living. Has The Last Remaining Superpower On Earth managed to do that--for all our wealth and military might?