RE: Why the hate?
They have a sort-of Army. They have never been on the top 10 list in any conflict and have been run out of just about anywhere they have been stationed. I had the unfortunate "opportunity" of working with some French units in Germany. There seems to be no dress code and the definition uniform is a misnomer, as everyone wears whatever color sox and undershirt they have. And the military bands were absolutely horrible to listen to. On the plus side though, the newer tanks and armored cars are 150% improvement over anything AMX or Panhard designed over the past 50 years. The AMX-30 seems to be a pretty good tank and the refurbished 1970's AMX-10 armored car did well in Iraq. As Eric wrote...the FT-13 was a gem. The US used a bunch of them, as did most any country who saw the future in the tank.