Read this article about how recruits going through basic at Leonard Wood back in 2001 were disappointed by the lack of rigor (with one trainee saying that it was more like summer camp than what he expected out of basic). http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,138095,00.html.
And...
That is NOT a 'man in the street' French perspective, by any means. That is a French combat soldier's perspective, and the French military has been 100% volunteer for quite a while now. For a long time after WWII the regular French army was composed of conscripts and wasn't worth the powder to...