The death of 10 French soldiers has shocked France. The Socialists are demanding a debate about the Afghanistan mission, but President Sarkozy has defended the Hindu Kush deployment as his party lashed out at the opposition for attempting to politicize a national tragedy. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks with French soldiers at Camp Warehouse in Kabul on Wednesday. With news sinking in on Wednesday that France suffered its biggest military loss of life in 25 years, the political opposition in Paris is demanding a rethink of the country's mission in Afghanistan. French President Nicolas Sarkozy rushed to Afghanistan and visited his country's troops on Wednesday morning in a show of support after 10 of their comrades were killed and 21 injured during an ambush on Monday and in fierce fighting that continued into Tuesday. France has about 2,600 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, and Sarkozy said they must remain there. "France is resolved to pursue the fight against terrorism, for democracy and liberty," Sarkozy said. "I don't have any doubt about that. We have to be here."
The death of 10 French soldiers has shocked France. The Socialists are demanding a debate about the Afghanistan mission, but President Sarkozy has defended the Hindu Kush deployment as his party lashed out at the opposition for attempting to politicize a national tragedy.
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks with French soldiers at Camp Warehouse in Kabul on Wednesday. With news sinking in on Wednesday that France suffered its biggest military loss of life in 25 years, the political opposition in Paris is demanding a rethink of the country's mission in Afghanistan.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy rushed to Afghanistan and visited his country's troops on Wednesday morning in a show of support after 10 of their comrades were killed and 21 injured during an ambush on Monday and in fierce fighting that continued into Tuesday. France has about 2,600 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, and Sarkozy said they must remain there.
"France is resolved to pursue the fight against terrorism, for democracy and liberty," Sarkozy said. "I don't have any doubt about that. We have to be here."
Guardian - Seamus Milne - The Afghan fire looks set to spread, but there is a way out
Far from being a noble cause, the occupation of Afghanistan is poisoning the region and will never bring peace or security The original aims of the invasion, it will be recalled, were the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and the destruction of al-Qaida in the aftermath of 9/11. None of those aims has been achieved. Instead, the US and its friends brought back to power an alliance of brutal and corrupt warlords, gave them new identities as democrats with phoney elections, and drove the Taliban and al-Qaida leaderships over the border into Pakistan. Far from reducing the threat of terrorism, this crucible of the war on terror has simply spread it around the region, bringing forth an increasingly potent campaign of resistance and giving a new lease of life to a revamped Taliban as a champion of Pashtun nationalism. And as mission creep has detached the Afghan war from its original declared target of al-Qaida - let alone the claims made about women's rights, which have been going into grim reverse again in much of the country under Nato tutelage - it has morphed into the kind of war of "civilisation" evoked by Sarkozy and Browne, a certain recipe for conflict without end. No wonder British politicians have talked about digging in for decades. [...] Afghanistan was supposed to be a demonstration of Nato's expanded horizons in the post-Soviet new world order. Instead, as with Nato's disastrous engagement with Georgia, it has underscored the dangers of giving the cold war alliance a new imperial brief. The growing conflict must also be added to the litany of US foreign policy failures that have been overseen by George Bush - from Iraq, Iran, Palestine and Lebanon to Latin America and now the Caucasus - and the evident necessity of a new direction.
The original aims of the invasion, it will be recalled, were the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and the destruction of al-Qaida in the aftermath of 9/11. None of those aims has been achieved. Instead, the US and its friends brought back to power an alliance of brutal and corrupt warlords, gave them new identities as democrats with phoney elections, and drove the Taliban and al-Qaida leaderships over the border into Pakistan.
Far from reducing the threat of terrorism, this crucible of the war on terror has simply spread it around the region, bringing forth an increasingly potent campaign of resistance and giving a new lease of life to a revamped Taliban as a champion of Pashtun nationalism. And as mission creep has detached the Afghan war from its original declared target of al-Qaida - let alone the claims made about women's rights, which have been going into grim reverse again in much of the country under Nato tutelage - it has morphed into the kind of war of "civilisation" evoked by Sarkozy and Browne, a certain recipe for conflict without end. No wonder British politicians have talked about digging in for decades. [...]
Afghanistan was supposed to be a demonstration of Nato's expanded horizons in the post-Soviet new world order. Instead, as with Nato's disastrous engagement with Georgia, it has underscored the dangers of giving the cold war alliance a new imperial brief. The growing conflict must also be added to the litany of US foreign policy failures that have been overseen by George Bush - from Iraq, Iran, Palestine and Lebanon to Latin America and now the Caucasus - and the evident necessity of a new direction.
Earlier this week Simon Jenkins even questioned NATO
Guardian - Simon Jenkins - In Europe, as in Asia, Nato leaves a trail of catastrophe
Nato is useless. It has failed to bring stability to Afghanistan, as it failed to bring it to Serbia. It just breaks crockery. Nato has proved a rotten fighting force, which in Kabul is on the brink of being sidelined by exasperated Americans. Nor is it any better at diplomacy: witness its hamfisted handling of east Europe. As the custodian of the west's postwar resistance to the Soviet Union's nuclear threat it served a purpose. Now it has become a diplomats' Olympics, irrelevant but with bursts of extravagant self-importance.
