In a move that was probably inevitable after they froze training operations last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced that French troops will begin transferring control of their sphere of influence, in Kapisa Province, to the Afghan government in March and speed their withdrawal of troops.
The goal now is for the French to have all their troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2013. The plan was previously for France, along with the rest of NATO, to complete their “handover” by the end of 2014.
Sarkozy and Afghan President Hamid Karzai discussed the announcement and now say they are pushing for the entire NATO “handover” to be sped up to the end of 2013. Sarkozy is presenting this as a faster end to the war. Karzai, who has in the past confirmed negotiations to keep US troops in the nation through 2024, is likely just in the market for the “handover” part, and the influence on the ground that might confer. Karzai’s government has been mostly sidelined in the US-Taliban talks due to its comparative lack of influence, particularly across the nation’s south.
The sudden interest in an exit plan by the French government is the result of an incident last week, in which four French soldiers were killed and a dozen others wounded in an attack by an Afghan soldier. The Afghan soldier was reportedly motivated by anger at a video of US Marines urinating on the corpses of several slain Afghans.
The refusal of DOD leadership to keep their troops within moral and legal boundaries puts everybody´s troops in increasing danger. It is becoming more and more difficult for friendly nations to support American wars.
Those troops will be needed on the streets of paris very soon
Sarkozy is cutting and running. What does he know that we don't? Something serious I would guess.
But Anti-war has more important issues to deal with. Like moderating its contributors relentlessly until they give up.
P.S. O.K., O.K., I give up! I get the message.
"I give up! I get the message."
I doubt it – such interminable whining…
Sarkozy had no problem killing defenseless people in Libya and stealing the gold. I guess he understands that no one has won in that location in the last 2,000 years. I find it interest that he is such a loud mouth on attacking Iran but he does not want to stay the course in a conflict so close to Iran. I wonder how he plans on attacking Iran and ignoring the rest of the middle east. Of course he is a zionist so his interest reports to a higher authority.