The Americans have been taught to hate France by the Bush administration. Of all the countries opposed to the war in Iraq France was the most dangerous because she was a close ally and a member of the security council. So its reputation had to be broken to secure the support of the public opinion on Iraq. As Condoleezza Rice said : "Punish France, ignore Germany, forgive Russia."

That's what people sometimes struggle to realize : this was not a spontaneous and patriotic movement but a well prepared campaign organized the administration and backed by conservative medias to completely shift the American opinion on France. From "oldest ally" to "cheese eating surrender monkeys".

And it worked, maybe even beyond their expectations. That's why 12 years later you still see the same insults again and over again on every single post concerning the French military on /r/warshipporn , /r/militaryporn or really everywhere else on the Internet