Victor Laszlo: Welcome back to the fight. President Sarkozy of France will tell Gordon Brown next week that France plans to send an extra 1,000 soldiers to Afghanistan to bolster the battle against the Taleban. Senior ministers have told The Times that Mr Sarkozy wants to underline his commitment to the alliance during his state visit to Britain. The Ministry of Defence has made a working assumption that President Sarkozy will announce a deployment of "slightly more than 1,000 troops to the eastern region", one said.
France already has 1,900 soldiers in Afghanistan. President Sarkozy hinted at stepping up his engagement during a surprise visit shortly before Christmas. "There is a war going on here, a war against terrorism, against fanaticism, that we cannot and will not lose," he said at the time.
Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
French diplomatic sources in London insisted last night that no final decision had been made.
"We hope to talk this maniac out of it."
President Sarkozy is said to be still deciding whether the extra troops should be sent to the south to fight alongside the Canadians or east to the border with Pakistan. In the latter scenario, the presence of French troops would allow the US troops currently policing the border to be sent south.
The operative word, I trust, is "fight."
Canada, which has 2,500 troops operating in Kandahar province in the south, had said that it would pull out next year unless another Nato country offered to send at least 1,000 soldiers to back them up.
Remember Dieppe.
However, even the United States, which has criticised its European allies for failing to come up with more combat units, has some sympathisers within its ranks for Europe's difficulties.
Huh?
Victoria Nuland, the US Ambassador to Nato, told The Times in an exclusive interview: "One of the problems is that European defence budgets are going down. When you look at the alliance, you don't see 30,000 troops sitting in a parking lot with nothing to do and waiting to be sent somewhere."
I blame Bush.
| There's a cure for this ... |
Speaking of which, perhaps JFM or A5089 could enlighten us on how the new French force will be equipped.
"But it's tough on the Marines," Mrs Nuland said. "This is the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. It's an enormous sacrifice for them. They have already been to Iraq twice and they should be having a rest. We're asking a lot of the soldiers."
I believe the requisite observation is "Ms. Nuland, they're not soldiers, they're Marines."
By the way, the article is from the Times (of London) and the comments are worth a look if your blood pressure needs a boost.