Excellent news:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said France will send more troops to bolster Nato’s mission in Afghanistan, subject to certain conditions.
Mr Sarkozy, who is on a state visit to Britain, said he would make the offer at next week’s Nato summit in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
Britain and the US have frequently called on other Nato members to send more soldiers to fight the Taleban.
The Nato-led force, Isaf, currently has over 43,000 personnel in Afghanistan.
In a speech to the British parliament in London, Mr Sarkozy said the Taleban could not be allowed to regain power.
“In Afghanistan something essential is being played out,” he said.
“France has proposed a strategy to its allies in the Atlantic alliance to enable the Afghan people and their legitimate government to build peace.
“If these proposals are accepted, during the summit in Bucharest, France will propose reinforcing its military presence.”
France already has troops in Afghanistan but like all other NATO forces – other than US, UK and Australia – they work on such restrictive rules of engagement as to be useless in a military sense except as static, garrison troops. President Sarkozy’s proposal indicates that the French military will engergetically engage in battle – and this, in turn, might get the Germans and others to step up to the plate. In the end, we are all in tihs together, and it will be over a lot faster if all concerned put some will into the fight.
The problem with Europe seems to be a lack of will to live, and a resultant unwillingness to fight. But it wasn’t always so – less than 100 years ago, France sternly sacrificed its manhood on the anvil-altar of Verdun, fighting for the core principle that governments must derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. The great-grandsons of those brave men now hold the destiny of France – and, perhaps, Europe – in their hands. President Sarkozy has made a brave offer, we’ll now see if there is any will to live in France, and Europe.
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