While the US is already working on its own to escalate the war against ISIS, the Friday evening attacks in Paris have sent the Hollande government into a new round of escalations of its own, with the US promising to go “shoulder-to-shoulder” with them in this new buildup.
Beyond the United States, France was one of the nations most involved in the US-led coalition against ISIS, and one of only a handful of nations launching strikes against ISIS not just in Iraq, but in Syria as well. The Hollande government is promising more of that.
President Hollande is promising attacks “without mercy” on ISIS targets, and officials are emphasizing the French airstrikes today against the ISIS capital of Raqqa, though at present there is no word of casualties in the attacks, and the only thing to distinguish them from attacks France has been launching for months is the government’s word for it that this time it was “massive.”
The deployment of a French aircraft carrier into the region to take part in the war against ISIS is also being presented as part of this move to really start going after ISIS, though again, this deployment was announced well before the Paris attacks, suggesting that the reaction was actually on ISIS’ part, not France’s.
According to the French government their bombs hit known ISIL targets only. If that is so why did the French government wait until after the Paris attacks to hit these?
France is bombing Syria it is the wrong country . They should bomb themselves and Belgium if they want to punish ISIS . Refusing to admit the truth is going to get more expensive all along .
The last paragraph is correct and French commentators are already criticizing Hollande for all the razzmattaz that accompanied sending France's only carrier to the area and Dominique de Villepin criticized him for using the word "war". Sarkozy said that the French want to feel secure in France, which indirectly says that he doesn't see the point of sending more forces to Syria. I suspect though that Hollande is speechifying for the domestic gallery with an eye on the regional elections on 6 and 13 December. The carrier will stay whatever length of time it was intended to stay and will then quietly be brought back to France and things will get back roughly to what they are now. That would be a typically European reaction.
As General Custer said in 'Little Big Man', "Nothing in this world is more surprising than the attack without mercy!"