Tuesday, December 19, 2006
This just in...
France beats a retreatNot exactly a "man bites dog" headline, is it?
PARIS -- France is to withdraw its 200-strong special forces from Afghanistan, all of its ground troops engaged in the U.S anti-terror operation there, authorities announced Sunday.
The decision to pull the elite troops, based in the southeastern city of Jalalabad, comes as the Taliban militia are gaining strength despite the strong engagement -- some 32,800 troops -- of NATO's International Security Assistance Force. France has balked at sending its 1,100-strong NATO contingent outside the relatively safe Afghan capital, Kabul.
This story naturally brings to mind the famous spoof "Soldier of Surrender" that circulated some years back.There are plenty of reasons to like the French, among them their fine cuisine and wine. Their status as curators of so many of the world's cultural treasures is a wonderful service to Western civilization (which I hope continues to endure for a long long time). I've been to France each of the last three years and look forward to my next visit there next June. I don't even find Parisians particularly rude.
But as military allies they are worse than worthless. The fact that France only had 200 troops in harms way in Afganistan is the travesty here. Stay tuned for similar news out of Lebanon, where there presence is likely to ensure continued strife and conflict.
19 Comments:
By 
D.E. Cloutier, at
Tue Dec 19, 06:14:00 PM:
The French are lovers, not fighters.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Tue Dec 19, 06:45:00 PM:
The French have one military idea I like--the French Foreign Legion. I would like to see an American Foreign Legion.
By Ken McCracken, at
Tue Dec 19, 06:54:00 PM:
Well, like they always say - going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion.
By Ken McCracken, at
Tue Dec 19, 06:57:00 PM:
BTW, I think an American Foreign Legion is a great idea.
Would make an excellent citizenship path, I think.
By Dawnfire82, at
Tue Dec 19, 07:03:00 PM:
But, thanks to President Bush's executive order to that effect, service in our military already accelerates citizenship attainment. I think it's down to 2 years now?
Besides, the idea of people joining a 'Foreign' anything and being given guns makes me uncomfortable. If they want to fight for America, they can do so beside me.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Tue Dec 19, 07:50:00 PM:
Can an illegal immigrant legally join the U.S. Army, Dawnfire82?
Can a man in Shanghai join the U.S. Army? Or a man in Jakarta? Or a man in Turkey?
I don't have the answer. I am hoping that you do.
Re: "...and being given guns makes me uncomfortable"
France keeps its units of trained legionnaires outside its borders.
Bad guys don't seem to have a problem finding guns.
By Purple Avenger, at
Tue Dec 19, 08:47:00 PM:
I'll reserve judgment until I see where they're going.
IMO, the HOA region is more important than Afghanistan right now. We're just starting to get heated up there and the French ARE involved in that operation
By 
, at
Tue Dec 19, 09:15:00 PM:
I believe many, many foreign nationals join our military. I think you could do it via e-mail by now.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Tue Dec 19, 09:32:00 PM:
I couldn't find any details about basic qualifications at the U.S. Army Recruiting Web site, Anonymous. However, the Web site army.com has this:
The basic qualifications for enlistment in the U.S. Army include:
• be a U.S. citizen or resident alien, (must have the I-551).
Form I-551 is a Green Card.
By allen, at
Tue Dec 19, 10:00:00 PM:
How does a French unit qualify as elite? By killing unarmed Tutsis?
By Tom the Redhunter, at
Tue Dec 19, 10:38:00 PM:
Gee that's funny, I thought Afghanistan was the war were were all supposed to agree on. Guess the French betrayed us there too.
By , at
Tue Dec 19, 11:54:00 PM:
Chicken Little,Cocky Locky and Henny Penny have discovred a new chicken living with them its the FRENCH YELLOW CHICKEN its so afraid its running way from even other chickens
By Fabio, at
Wed Dec 20, 05:34:00 AM:
I disagree, in part. France is not surrendering; they're just not interested in that fight.
Compare with Ivory Coast, where France showed exactly the "Don't mess with us, or else..." attitude that many think the USA should have as well.
By allen, at
Wed Dec 20, 06:04:00 AM:
Fabio,
I whole heartedly agree with you: recent French valor is beyond reproach. The struggle for Rwanda comes immediately to mind. (Or was that the struggle against Rwanda? I can never get that quite straight.)
Frankly (no pun intended) I await the trauma of the French surrender of Lebanon to the IDF. Sacrebleu! Who will receive the surrender? Not the detestable Jews – better to wade into the Channel.
Oh, there is much to admire about the French, although, Paris is not the best place to learn of France or the French.
By Dawnfire82, at
Thu Dec 21, 03:54:00 PM:
'France keeps its units of trained legionnaires outside its borders.'
Probably a bright thing to do.
'Bad guys don't seem to have a problem finding guns'
doesn't mean that we should train, arm, and uniform just anyone. To me, taking a 'legion' of non-Americans and giving them military weaponry and putting them all in the same place is just stupid. Dispersing them throughout the regular armed forces is perfectly effective and they integrate into American society. (or at least the military subculture)
Part of the justification of the French Legion is for immigrants to earn their citizenship through voluntary military service. Well, we don't have conscription here, and they can already get their citizenship through military service.
The Marines, intended as overseas shock troops, are close enough to a Foreign Legion for me.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Thu Dec 21, 05:35:00 PM:
Weldon Berger at the left-wing Democratic Underground seems to agree with you on this topic, Dawnfire82.
Perhaps I should run for President. I seem to have no trouble getting the political left and the political right on the same side of the table.
Berger's column on the idea of an American Foreign Legion:
"Max Boot is Barking Mad"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/03/04_boot.html
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Thu Dec 21, 11:09:00 PM:
P.S. The idea of an American Foreign Legion originally came from Max Boot, not from me, Dawnfire82. Boot is a regular lecturer at U.S. military institutions such as the Army War College and the Command and General Staff College. You may want to send Boot an email, telling him that you consider his idea "stupid." After reading your opinion, he may want to tell military officers something different.
By Dawnfire82, at
Fri Dec 22, 12:35:00 PM:
It's often so hard to distil sarcasm from your words, DEC...
I found what seems to be his original post here: http://www.cfr.org/publication/7861/uncle_sam_wants_tu.html
Some excerpts:
"The simplest thing to do would be to sign up foreigners for the regular U.S. military"
Concur.
"As its name implies, this unit would be modeled on the French Foreign Legion, except, again, U.S. citizenship would be part of the "pay."
We already have that, as I mentioned before.
"An added benefit is that by recruiting foreigners, the U.S. military could address its most pressing strategic deficit in the war on terrorism -- lack of knowledge about other cultures. The most efficient way to expand the government's corps of Pashto or Arabic speakers isn't to send native-born Americans to language schools; it's to recruit native speakers of those languages."
And taking those valuable foreign born people, whom we actively recruit already by the way, and throwing them into infantry line units (and whatever else is needed in the Legion) is a colossal waste of resources and opportunity when they could almost just as easily become interrogators or interpreters or counterintelligence agents or analysts; where their language abilities will pay off the most. I'd rather have 3500 native Arab speakers dispersed throughout Army intelligence than grouped together into a Brigade.
If this article hadn't been written two years ago, (24 Feb 2005) I likely would write to the fellow...
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Fri Dec 22, 12:49:00 PM:
"We already have that, as I mentioned before."
You have that for people who have Green Cards. You don't have that for people who don't have Green Cards. If you are not a U.S. citizen, you must have a Green Card to join the U.S. military.
Many people in other countries have to wait years and years and years for a Green Card. The foreign-legion plan would give those people a shortcut.
You don't like the idea. I get the picture.
