French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that he was suspending training operations in Afghanistan after an Afghan soldier killed four French soldiers and wounded a dozen more in a shoot out.
Sarkozy also said the shooting raises serious doubts about the efficacy of NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan and could possibly lead France to withdraw its 3,600 troops from the mission sooner rather than later.
The attack that killed the French troops is just one in a long line of similar attacks that have been occurring in recent weeks. U.S. Marines and other coalition troops are being killed and attacked by Afghan army soldiers that are receiving training from NATO.
The government has been mum about the rising number of such incidents because it flies in the face of, for example, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s comment last month that the U.S. is “winning” in Afghanistan. A central goal of the mission is to train an Afghan army, but so far the army is made up of illiterate criminals and drug addicts who sometimes attack NATO soldiers and quit in droves.
A recent classified coalition report, says the New York Times, “makes clear that these killings have become the most visible symptom of a far deeper ailment plaguing the war effort: the contempt each side holds for the other, never mind the Taliban. The ill will and mistrust run deep among civilians and militaries on both sides, raising questions about what future role the United States and its allies can expect to play in Afghanistan.”
Panetta is correct about one thing, NATO trained Afghans have successfully learned to kill their enemies
What in the hell is the West doing, "training" troops in Afghanistan? Why increase militirism around the world? If Afghanistan didn't have an army before, why are we forcing one on them now? One they can't even afford to maintain already! There is no rhyme or reason to what is going on over there.
It would make sense if the idea were to train dependence… like maybe you answered your own question. Nope, couldn't afford one, could they? What'd solve that problem, from 'our' perspective, is to generate a perceived need for one…
…kinda like we do over here…
Worried where money comes from? (???) It all gos to the same place.
An obvious reason for building an Afghan Army is to protect the American puppet Karzai and the American forces that are stationed there from the radicals (locals) – who only want the US/NATO invaders gone. Not to mention all those companies like Haliburton and Schlumberger who are lining up to strip mine the country of minerals.
But, that's just this old Curmudgeon's opinion…
They'll have an "army" as long as it keeps US dollars and weapons rolling in. Once that stops it'll all revert to their previous tribal system that's worked for them for so long.
Narco Sarko is finding out that sometimes the New World Odor doesn't smell so good.
One by one, the rats are leaving the sinking ship.
I doubt it. The US government will put pressure on the French and they'll reluctantly agree to stay in Afghanistan until their masters in Washington tell them they can go home.
The French have never toed the line when Washington dictated…unless it's in the best interest of the French, of course. Sarkozy is in an election battle and losing 4 soldiers is probably NOT what the French people thought they signed up for – I mean, training and they get killed? Mon Dieu…
I thought they changed their usual independant policy when Sarkozy got in office?
Unlike here in the USofA, the French government sometimes actually cares what the voters say.
The French gonna go home. Which by the by, they did in Vietnam. Make a mess, leave a quagmire. That's the ticket. Afghaniscam is where Empires go to get their hubristic asses kicked. Got to hand it to the Afghans, they do know how to whoop ass on the cheap.
Skulz,
Not just Vietnam, they messed up in Algeria as well, and played a most ignoble role in Haiti. They're responsible for war crimes in Libya.
Now they're threatening Iran.
It's just posturing by Sarkozy to get elected.
Do you really think its fair to blame modern day France for Haiti?
A U.S. marine was killed on Wednesday, January 18, in Helmand province and a U.S. army soldier also died Wednesday in Paktika province. Including the six US soldiers killed in a Helicopter
crash on Thursday, January 18 the total U. S. death toal in January, 2012 has already reached ninteen. And this is the slow season. Obviously the U.S. military is in fact losing this war.
Some good news at last
"…the U.S. military is in fact losing this war."
No Western country has ever won a war in Afghanistan, and it doesn't look like they are about to start now.
Roasted Frogs Legs anyone?
And to think its my comments that get censored and deleted…
[moderator’s note: If that’s what you “think,” then what you’re doing isn’t “thinking” – TLK]
let´s just trough this under the carpet like the Iraq War, that, of course, nobody have forgotten that, did you?
they are being trained to protect the resourses for the west.Thats why the Brits,French Americans are there.What else are they there for? Democracy ha ha…
all they are saying is …get out
Sarkozy believes he's Napoleon incarnate. He thinks he see an opportunity to re-colonize Africa, so he wants to reassign the troops.
This is very simple. We are invaders and occupiers, period and will never be anything else.
Afghanistan has been settled and driving out invaders for 4,000 years. The United States
is just another tinpot empire that they will drive out. The Afghans are a tribal society who does
not need nor will they ever accept a central government. The Afghans who join the Afghan
army do it for one reason and one reason only, to get close enough to our soldiers to kill
them, death by a thousand cuts. They will do this for a year, 10 years or a thousand years,
what ever it takes to drive us out. They will bleed us until the end of time, we will never be
successful in installing a central government that we can use to control the whole country.
We tried to tell the idiots in Washington 10 years ago this would happen but the refused to
listen….
They are not idiots in Washington, they are just plai evil
"Roasted Frogs Legs anyone? "
No, we'll pass, thank you. They're all yours. Be sure to wash them down with a pint of Marine Urine!