Damien

On reflection, I do find it surprising America and Britain especially didn't at least try to find some way of doing this in a way that allowed the French to save face. They are a big member of NATO, one of the permanent members of the Security Council (the only other one allied with US/UK) and military we do a lot of joint operations with.

You think there must have been options from giving them more notice or including them if only in a tokenistic way into the plan.

Even if the end result is for the better I can't see any advantages in the way this was sprung on the French, seems very undiplomatic. Not to mention Macron is coming up to an election and you've backed him into his corner.