I will grant that the average foot soldier might have courage, but his leaders will always screw that up. Look at history ... Dien Bien Phu 1948 or 49, General Vo Nyugen Giap surrounded the French Elite paratroops and massacred them because they couldn't fight with determination. Khe Sahn, Tet Offensive of 1968, same General with the same tactics for the NVA, but he ran into American Marines who were not afraid to fight. Very different outcome for him.
WW1 - one of the French generals managed to incite a mutiny among his troops because they were tired of being used for cannon fodder in and around Verdun. And now it is the damnable French leadership (Chirac and that fop Villepan) that have brought this scorn upon themselves by their perfidity. They lend credence to the old question - With friends like them, who needs enemies?
I agree with your assessment on the failure of leaders, but I am sorry the French-German axis is about the Euro and power. Americans will soon discover that when creditors decide that the Euro is safer than greenbacks from a country intent on fighting an East-West battle to the death in the Middle East.