Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Sarko trades troops for national prestige
The good news: Sarkozy's France wants to reintegrate with the NATO command structure. The bad news: They want command of Allied Forces South Europe, based in Naples. The good news: They are coughing up more troops for Afghanistan to sweeten the deal. The bad news: It's only 1,200 soldiers, which might seem like a lot if you are European but is about 10% of the number that would be useful. The good news: The French are willing to put them under British command, which is an enormous concession if you think about it.
It is probably in our interest to give Sarko "victories," so that the voters of France know that working with the United States pays off compared to Villepainist obstructionism. I say take the deal, but also understand why "working with traditional allies" is such a load for our guys.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Mar 25, 10:29:00 AM:
Pardon my ignorance but what is the "cost" associated with giving the French command of AFSE? Who has it now? What are the responsibilities of the command? As far as I know, NATO is an outdated mutual defense pact whose only significant recent action is taking military operations in Afghanistan. What does it matter if we agree to the French take command so far away from the battlefield?
By 
Georg Felis, at
Tue Mar 25, 04:55:00 PM:
Before it is publicly announced, the US needs to have all the conditions and requirements laid out, signed, and set in cement. Otherwise the French will backtrack under their islamic public pressure once the deal becomes public, leaving us with egg on our face (again).
By , at
Tue Mar 25, 07:46:00 PM:
I concur. Maybe after the world doesn't collapse into a hellstorm of destruction after deploying their 1200 troops, they'll be more inclined to do it in the future.
By Who Struck John, at
Tue Mar 25, 08:07:00 PM:
The AFSOUTH billet has traditionally been assigned to the US admiral commanding Sixth Fleet. Back in the old days when the French were part of the NATO force structure, they had the southern army group command in Germany.
So this is a two-fold bid on the French part: to get a more important position in the alliance command structure than they gave up when they left, AND to grab control of the NATO command most likely to have an active role in Europe, in particular if something (Kosovo? The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia??) should go sour in the Balkans. All this for the low, low price of deploying one extra battalion of infantry to Afghanistan. What a bargain!
I'm more than a little dubious that we should agree to such a "deal".
