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Afghanistan
France suspends Afghan military ops
2012-01-21
PARIS: France is suspending military operations in Afghanistan and may accelerate its planned troop withdrawal if the security situation does not improve, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday after the killing of four more French soldiers.

Sarkozy, addressing French diplomats after an Afghan security source said four soldiers had been killed and 17 wounded by an Afghan soldier in the Taghab valley of eastern Kapisa province, confirmed that the dead were French.

“I have decided to send the defense minister and the head of the armed forces to Afghanistan and until then all training operations and combat help from French forces are suspended,” said Sarkozy. “If the security conditions are not clearly established then the question of an early return of French forces from Afghanistan will arise.”

“It’s unacceptable that our soldiers are killed by our allies. It’s a difficult decision to make,” he said of the suspension of French operations.

More than 2,500 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since the NATO-led war began in 2001, and the latest killings take the French toll to 82.
Posted by:Steve White

#7  I have deployed three times to Afghanistan, including almost a full year working next to ANA each and every day. They are a proud people and take these kind of incidents extremely seriously.

There are three problems ---
1 Stolen ANA uniforms -which are easy to come by when you have over a 1000 soldiers defecting from the ranks every month. The old "use the uniform" trick

2.Unfortunately, the larger number of attacks have been soldiers that lose the bubble. We can really rub people the wrong way. And when their pay is on average 200 to 300 bucks a month, which some of us earn in a day or less, its easy to get, well, out of step. What is not reported is the number of attacks of ANA against their own.
3. The ANA has been forced to push its numbers at an extrem pace. In part because the West wants to say --- over to you and get out of Dodge. Result poor sreening - and where some just sign up to a room and food for the winter away from ones village, Taliban symbathizers can get recruited. No lie detector there. No written exam either as 9 out of 10 recruits cant read.

What irritates me is the French knee jerk reaction. He just placed a lot more people in danger. The Taliban arent stupid. Hey lets do this some more and more countries will leave --- lets do more the ANA on Coalition attack more -its working. I was furious when I heard his weak whining press conference statements. And the most at risk, in my view will now be his own troops. Big oops. He shoould had have his peepee slapped by other heads of state. But that will not happen. Too sensitive --- More likely behind the scene view - The French gov would like to pull troops to cut costs - and now they have an excuse -a lame one but an excuse nevertheless.
Posted by: Northern Cousin   2012-01-21 23:02  

#6  Sorry.
21 casualties, 1 shooter, all armed, in a war zone?
Isn't that number more than Ft. Hood?
Posted by: Skidmark   2012-01-21 17:52  

#5  Yup.

Steve, before you accuse the French of cowardice, keep in mind that if they started shooting at their enemies here our guys would probably be caught in the crossfire.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2012-01-21 15:13  

#4  Our "leadership" deserves disdain, period, Thing. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara   2012-01-21 10:47  

#3  Our leadership, that wants to ignore our allies (NOT the French) shooting our soldiers in the back, deserves disdain, not the French.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2012-01-21 09:45  

#2  Agreed the French soldier is a good fighter. But the French leadership deserves all the snark we can muster.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2012-01-21 09:10  

#1  No snark please. The French fight fiercely if they so choose and they have in this WAR. We lost a few too. It may be time to look at the weapons at our backs.
Posted by: newc   2012-01-21 01:41  

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