Newly elected French President Francios Hollande will formerly announced at this month’s NATO summit in Chicago that he plans to withdraw French troops from Afghanistan in 2012 as per his campaign promise, despite objections from President Obama and NATO leaders.
Hollande is set to take office and replace Nicolas Sarkozy next week and his spokesman Manuel Valls said France would announce the withdrawal of all of its 3,400 troops in Afghanistan “sometime between now and the end of the year.”
President Obama has invited Hollande to the White House for talks and is expected to ask him to keep French troops in Afghanistan until the stated withdrawal date of 2014. Sarkozy had already declared in January that he would pull French combat forces out a year early, by the end of 2013. But Hollande’s pullout date would be two years early.
Technically, an early French withdrawal date would need to be agreed upon by NATO at this month’s May 20-21 summit. Whether France will get that kind of accommodation is unclear. France also has committed to play a part in the training of Afghan forces which will proceed beyond the 2014 withdrawal date.
“France as we all know is a staunch ally,” NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in Monday’s press briefing. “NATO counts on France, and France can count on NATO.”
Lungescu added that there’s “agreement that we’re sticking to the timetable for transition in Afghanistan. We’re sticking to the principle of ‘in together, out together.’ And we’re sticking to our pledge of an enduring commitment to Afghanistan after transition is completed by the end of 2014.”
So are you Americans back to "freedom fries" again?
Now that was a good one.
These mouth breathers are living proof of the saying, "There's no one smarter in the world than a dumb American." The idiots here love the Boomb! Boomb! Boomb! of a military band. They cream when jets fly overhead and breathe heavily watching young men marching in a formation.
We need a Bertolt Brecht to capture this insanity.
Anyone taking bets that Hollande will cave after his "talks" with Obama?
Thinking same. OR he'll be leaned on so badly he'll be lucky to get up and walk again.
Who knows if Obama has the power he used to have. Obama's main thing is keeping sanctions on Iran. Until the White House is cinched up (in his and his party's mindset) on reelection, I don't think he feels he has the elbow room to put hard pressure on Hollande. Shrug, I am not privy to all the power plays these people do. We will see.
Its all about money. Warfare costs money. You can not have austerity program and warfare interventions without citizens eventually getting fed up. A main point of this article
is "Technically, an Early French withdrawal date would need to be agreed upon at this months May 20-21 summit"
The Libyan war to oust Ghadaffi, was pushed by France and Sarkozy. France has changed. Obama's invitation to the white house.
I have heard people argue, mainly on the paleo right wing, that Hollande is as much a 'globalist, interventionist' as Sarkozy is/was'. I am skeptical of their viewpoint and have not formed an opinion. The main test is Syria, it has been said that France are the people pushing regime change in Syria.
Eric Margolis, journalist sure believes this.
I hope Hollande says what he means and does not cave in to Obama. It's funny that Obama can't stand up to the neocons so he decides to become just like them and world leaders can't stand up to Obama so they decide to be just like him.