I can't see why gratitude towards America should be a reason for helping it to do something which you believe will be disastrous for America as well as for the rest of the world.

That would be a strange kind of gratitude. You try to save your friends from making mistakes if you can.

The only reason I can imagine for this anger about France would be if they really thought that the French actually believed that a preemptive war against Iraq at this time would be a good idea, but that they'd interrupted the process out of sheer malice.

The thing is, the French don't believe that. Hardly anybody does anywhere, outside the White House and Tiny Blair's study.