Senior British defense officialIt is up to the other big countries to act. ... France has the capablities. It is not enough for them just to sit around near the airport.
September 20, 2006 (Mirror)
There is no question that we can take some of our forces away from Kabul to send them to the south of Afghanistan.
Michèle Alliot-Marie,
French Defense Minister and
former dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee™
PARIS September 21, 2006 (Reuters)
REPORT: FRANCE PLANS TO WITHDRAW 200 TROOPS FROM AFGHANISTAN
PARIS October 15, 2006 (IHT/AP) - A French newspaper reported Sunday that France plans to withdraw 200 special forces officers from southeast Afghanistan by early next year.
The Defense Ministry refused to comment on the report in Journal de Dimanche newspaper, which cited unnamed sources "close to the military."
"The decision to withdraw the elite troops was taken at the highest level by the president of the republic and the army chiefs of staff," the report said, adding that another 1,700 French troops that are part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan would not be affected by the decision.
Deployed in southeastern Afghanistan, the French special forces have been involved in the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban and the search for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
The newspaper suggested the worsening security situation in Afghanistan was a possible reason for the decision to pull the special troops out. Nine elite troops have been killed in combat.
It is regrettable in a shooting war that soldiers get shot, but that is the nature of shooting wars. If the security situation, i.e., the shooting war, in Afghanistan is worsening, it is odd to be pulling troops out when the high command is desperate to have more troops. Withdrawal is tantamount to ceding the region to the enemy. But France has had enough of the shooting war and is happy to leave the dangerous work to her coalition partners. Oh, bonne chance.
PFFT (What is this?): Fully committed ½ | Rayonnement français 0
