It has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not ignorant Americans are justified in calling the French cowards. I was in the Italian Army when the Americans, having suffered one major terrorist attack, left Lebanon without even warning their supposed allies, a small British force and large French and Italian ones. And everyone remembers the similarly precipitate retreat from Somalia. A nation that, in the face of enemy fire, decamps without even warning its own allies, has no business calling anybody cowardly.