French echo US concerns about extensive foreign commitments

French military concerned about burden of commitments abroad:
"Another of the military staffs' concerns is finding a balance between engagement abroad and plans for the future. Opex, which are often a mixture of policing and assistance missions, provide practical experience, but do not help to acquire new and modern expertise."

The number and length of commitments, as well as the overall size of the foreign commitments is troubling French defense officials as it does our own. Of course, France is a lot smaller than the US (about 1/5 our population and only about 70% of our per capita GDP) and they are reacting to commitments totalling less than 15,000 troops and under a billion dollars a year.