France to Begin Withdrawal after Failure in Afghanistan

[Major Shaitan Singh]

TULLE, France — French President Francois Hollande on June 9 said France will begin its pullout from Afghanistan next month and complete it by Dec. 31, after four French troops were killed on the eve of key elections.

Hollande said France would pay a “national homage” to the men killed in a Taliban suicide attack in eastern Afghanistan earlier in the day and that the five other wounded would be repatriated rapidly.

The withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan was one of Hollande’s presidential electoral promises. It “will begin in the month of July, will be carried out and be completed at the end of 2012,” Hollande said. “In the meantime, everything must be done for our troops to meet their obligations but with the highest level of security and with the greatest vigilance for the lives of the soldiers.

“I am making this engagement here and I will be the guarantor for this operation,” Hollande said in Tulle, where he was to attend a commemoration of the massacre of civilians by the Nazis on June 9, 1944.

According to the French defence ministry, the soldiers targeted in the attack were participating in a “control operation” in the province bordering Pakistan where insurgents are very active.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said the attacker was disguised as a woman wearing a burqa.

Three of the five wounded were in critical condition June 9.

They were the first French soldiers to be lost in Afghanistan since Jan. 20, when an Afghan soldier shot dead four unarmed soldiers and wounded 15 others.

About 3,500 French soldiers are deployed in Afghanistan, mainly in Kabul and in the eastern Kapisa province where the June 9 attack occurred.

Since January’s attack, France has started accelerating the withdrawal of its troops, and French soldiers have been given instructions to minimize their exposure.

While former right-wing French president Nicolas Sarkozy had fixed a deadline of December 2013 to bring home combat troops, Hollande, who defeated Sarkozy in May presidential elections, has decided to bring the timetable forward.

France returns to the polls June 10 in the first round of legislative elections in which Hollande’s Socialists and their allies are hoping to win control of the National Assembly from the conservatives.

Although Hollande’s decision met with little resistance from NATO partners during a recent summit in Chicago, the actual pullout remains a complex process.

It would involve bringing 2,000 combat troops home within six months, with the remaining personnel to stay behind to take charge of repatriating military equipment including 900 armored vehicles and over 1,000 containers.

Francois Heisbourg from the International Institute for Strategic Studies noted that the withdrawal of Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1990s took place with little losses.

“Normally, it is not in the interest of the insurgents to delay the withdrawal, but they are divided among themselves and some could try to outdo the others,” he said.

France provides the fifth largest contingent to NATO’s 130,000-strong U.S.-led force. Allies have downplayed the impact of their early departure, saying Afghan troops are ready to take over.

The relatively quiet Kabul district of Surobi, where French troops are also based, was handed over to local control in April.

Kapisa has been included in the third of a five-phase transfer, which Afghan officials say could take as little as six months, but which NATO’s International Security Assistance Force has timetabled at 12 to 18 months.

 

[Hafizzz]

Nothing to be worried because India will take over USA and Europe's position in Afghanistan

 

[Ammyy]

Nothing to be worried because India will take over USA and Europe's position in Afghanistan

Dnt worry Afghanistan can control these terrorist Talibani after NATO forces leave their country ...

 

[KRAIT]

Nothing to be worried because India will take over USA and Europe's position in Afghanistan

Yeah we built
SCHOOLS
HOSPITALS and other medical care in remote parts
ROADS
Parliament Building

We are investing $ 2 billion dollars in Afghanistan.

We are sending thousands of Afghan students on scholarship to study in Indian Universities.

We are training ANA so that they can defend their country and countrymen.

A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed
Now answer one question of mine, what did you do as a neighbouring country, as a friend?

A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed

So better stop your rants and post something relevant.

 

[OrionHunter]

Two points:

1. What constitutes 'failure'? What were the objectives of the French? Nowhere in the article has the word 'failure' been mentioned. Just because a few French troops were killed, doesn't constitute failure by any stretch of imagination! Or am I missing something here?

2. Secondly, where's the goddamn LINK?

 

[Developereo]

US won't allow France out of its dominance RT

France’s pullout from Afghanistan earlier than scheduled is going to be money-losing and will likely distance Paris further from Washington – which it can’t afford, being in the shadow of the US militarily, journalist Robert Harneis explained to RT.

As French President François Hollande’s Socialist Party and its left-wing allies look set to win a majority in the lower house, the early pullout is likely to be approved by parliament.

Shortly after the attack that killed four French soldiers and injured five others, President Hollande announced the country would begin withdrawing troops in July, following his election pledge. The withdrawal is due to be completed by the end of 2012 — a year earlier than Paris initially planned, and two years before other NATO allies.

France’s Defense Minister has arrived in Afghanistan, although the full program of his visit has not been released, he is expected to address French troops and meet Afghan government officials.

Freelance journalist Robert Harneis explained to RT that the decision for an early pullout indicates Hollande is going to be ostensibly less pro-NATO. Although he says the reality is that while America has a huge military dominance, it is very difficult for any Western European country to stray very far from the American alliance.

“What difference does it actually make – that France comes out of Afghanistan a year earlier – it will actually cost France money,” he told RT. “It is more expensive to leave in a hurry than it is to leave in a more leisurely way, and it upsets allies. But the allies understand that the French have elections. But I do not think it indicates anything very fundamental."

"France is, like all the Western European countries, very much in the shadow of the US militarily," he added. "When you hear four French soldiers killed in a suicide attack and a considerable number of others injured, it is not going to encourage the French to stay any longer than they have to, but it also warns them of the dangers of taking independent initiatives.”

Alex Korbel, a spokesman for Contrepoints.org website, told RT, Hollande’s foreign policy decisions do not differ very much from those of President Sarkozy.

“To leave Afghanistan one year earlier than Sarkozy it is not really a clear change from the Sarkozy’s strategic plan,” he told RT. “The war in Afghanistan by the coalition led by the US, France and some other allies has clearly failed. It is a big defeat for the US and the Western Europe. First it was a punitive war against the Taliban, then it was a liberalization war, counter-insurgency war. The objective has changed, the strategic decisions have been really-really bad and the result is a clear failure to attain their goals.”

 

[KingMamba]

At least Hollande is keeping his word how many politicians do that in this day and age?

 

[Gandhi G in da house]

As long as the Taliban does not come back to power in Afghanistan and provide safe havens to global terrorists , it will be considered a victory atleast from the Indian and Afghan perspective. God knows what some Westerners were expecting from this war .They were never going to completely exterminate Taliban or religious extremism from Afghan soil anyway .

 

[Hafizzz]

As long as the Taliban does not come back to power in Afghanistan and provide safe havens to global terrorists , it will be considered a victory atleast from the Indian and Afghan perspective. God knows what some Westerners were expecting from this war .They were never going to completely exterminate Taliban or religious extremism from Afghan soil anyway .

The Taliban will not return only when the Sun rises from the West and sets in the East.

 

[mdcp]

Indians vicious pbjectives will never succeed, the drug money and world largest drug distribution with organised indian help to support ana and create anachy is pakistan
Its better that france realise their mistake, its never too late, once u understand mistake quickly fix it
It was big american lie as we did not find WMD in Iraq and no one saw OSAMA Body too

 

[Nishan_101]

They should give the weapons and equipments to AFGHANs or give an estmated AID of about $700millions to get some equipment from Pakistan that will include MANPADs.