Winds of Change has a great write-up, from "Gabriel Gonzales" in Paris, on some differences between US and French foreign policy, and how the involvement and interest of citizens makes all the difference.

One topic that comes up frequently is "isolating" or "containing" France's actions, but indeed that his more difficult with France cloaked or protected by the EU, who cannot boycott France economically or politically any more than Wisconsin could boycott Illinois.

Another is -- one of my recent favorites -- "projection" (Miriam Webster: "the attribution of one's own ideas, feelings, or attitudes to other people"):

Instead, the French view themselves as in competition with (a more ruthless) United States. The French naturally assume that everybody else is at least as cynical and morally depraved as they are, the only difference being that, in their view, the U.S. plays the game more viciously than they do, acquiring an unfair advantage. for instance:

I was told several times before the war by French people familiar with French policy, including many knowledgable about the defense industries, "Of course, we are selling illegal arms to Saddam's regime" in violation of the embargo. "But don't tell me that the U.S. isn't".

The ensuing discussion is interesting, also, if you have the time for it. One French commenter adds, hopefully:

This is a good article and i'm saying that as a French person who's lived in Australia for many years (but who still often goes back to France where I have close family.) ... However I think you have to understand that there are lots of French people who despise the Govt for what it's done; that France, since the Revolution, has laboured under the twin deadly traditions of absolutist statist authoritarianism on the one hand and revolutionary insurectionism on the other... France is a republican absolute monarchy. The anti-Us stuff is also a useful way to divert the population's attention from the massive problems of corruption of the govt not only in terms of Iraq but in terms of the whole shebang -- some people even call the state now 'la republique mafieuse', the mafiosos' republic... Don't condemn everyone, it's not fair, and it doesn't give any hope to those trying to change things.

Incidentally many young people feel very close to the US and hate the whole anti-American thing. Generational change may work wonders!

That's a nice sentiment. I don't think it will prevail in the long term, though, as usual, I'd love to be wrong.