Article

2008-04-03 Afghanistan

French PM announces 'several hundred' extra Afghan troops

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Posted by Fred 2008-04-03 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top
File under: Taliban

#1 Is this some kind of quid pro quo? Since when does the US just ask for something and it comes like manna from heaven?

Posted by gorb 2008-04-03 02:27|| 2008-04-03 02:27|| Front Page Top

#2 its not just the US asking, Canada and UK have also been asking.

I dont know of any specific tangible quid pro quo, but Sarkozy I assume is justifying it at home in terms of general French influence, both in South Asia, and within NATO, and improving the relationship with the US.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-04-03 09:05|| 2008-04-03 09:05|| Front Page Top

#3 Quo - You want missile defense?*
Quid - You pony up some troops.

*Why should the Executive have to go to the mat with the Legislative branch on funding for hundreds of millions, if you dudes aren't willing to put a dime to a dollar? If we're going to look at our own bottom line, we can save a lot by not implementing a shield that only serves you.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-04-03 10:09|| 2008-04-03 10:09|| Front Page Top

#4 This isn't free - but it's primarily Germany and Britain who are paying rather than us.

Sarkozy sees the chill in US-UK relations with Gordo and the failure of Germany to support combat/stability ops in Afghanistan. France is stepping up -- and expects to be seen as leading the EU military as a result.

Posted by lotp 2008-04-03 11:28|| 2008-04-03 11:28|| Front Page Top

#5 lotp

Sarkozy has Hungarian roots. Unlike genuine French who were bombarded with heavy communist propganda,were resentful against the US for depriving France of her god-given right to be number 1 in world and in addition were safely hundreds of miles away of the Fulda Gap he grew looking at America as a defnder of freedom.

Don't be overly cynical, part of the move,not all but some of it, is genuine friendship and anither part is that he understands thet we are in the same boat.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2008-04-03 12:11|| 2008-04-03 12:11|| Front Page Top

#6 If France actually funds her military, then sends troops and material out to fight in the battles of the War on Terror, she is in contention for leading the EU military. Britain has been doing yeoman's work, but they've also been enthusiastically cutting troops and supplies for at least a decade; it is starting to look like giving up the lead, militarily, might well be the choice of governing elite, if not of the citizenry.

Posted by trailing wife 2008-04-03 12:21|| 2008-04-03 12:21|| Front Page Top

#7 This isn't free - but it's primarily Germany and Britain who are paying rather than us.

Oh, who paid the bills in R&D and field testing?

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-04-03 12:40|| 2008-04-03 12:40|| Front Page Top

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