"Dave" wrote in news:UrPDe.170606$_o.155947@attbi_s71:

In all of history has France ever won a war by themselves?

Napolean did quite well, for most of the 20-odd years he was
in charge.

Since then, France's military efforts have tended to have
disappointing results.

(side note to John Emmons - the first country the US went
to war against, after the revolution, was France. Evidently
the folks back then didn't feel they owed the French much :-)

John