France takes over NATO's Afghanistan force

Kabul � Canadian Lieutenant-General Rick Hillier relinquished command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force on Monday, handing over responsibilities to French Lt.-Gen. Jean-Louis Py.

The handover marks the start of Eurocorps' first overseas deployment and the end of Canada's largest commitment to Afghanistan yet.

link to story here, john

www.theglobeandmail.com...

You have to admire France. They can stand-up to terrorists in Afghanistan and Bush in Iraq.

Of course they are going in now. The heavy fighting is done.

I give it a week before the U.S has to go in and rescue them.

Originally posted by crmanager
Of course they are going in now. The heavy fighting is done.

I give it a week before the U.S has to go in and rescue them.

Um, they have been there since the beginning. They are just taking over command. But, uh, thanks for that though.

French Military...oxymoron...I do remember the last time the French "had it under control".....Dien Bien Phu I believe? Yup..that was a good time for the French..

France takes over NATO's Afghanistan force

Great....so now NATO's forces there are going to just surrender???

Sorry, couldn't resist it.... Just go and Google on "French Military Victories" and click on "I'm Feeling Lucky", hehe....

[Did you mean, "French Military Defeats"?] hehe....priceless....

I see a new conspiracy link coming..."US Manipulating Google Searches for Propaganda Reasons"...any takers

um curme? read
www.diplomatie.gouv.fr...

They joined when they realized that the world was pushing them aside and they wern't even wanted.

Can you say BANDWAGON?

It seems we are on a topic that most Americans on this site love - 'French bashing!'. Quite pathetic really. France has done more for the world culturally, militarily and politically than the US ever has. The US would not even exist if it were not for the French military assisstance it recieved during the Revolution against the UK.

Eddie you are right. France has a long and storied history of contribution to the world. No arguement.

But what have you done for me lately?

Abandon NATO. Create your own unneeded nuclear force. Remove foreign word because then offend your sensibilities. Diem Biem Phu.

They are truly "OLD Europe." Troops in Chad while genocide is happening in next door Sudan. Keep the colony and forget the world. Heck the U.S. had to go to the Ivory coast because the locals HATED what the French let happen.

Lets get down to it. The French are like a "Lady of Ill Repute" well past her prime and trying to hold on to her used up looks.

Originally posted by crmanager
um curme? read
www.diplomatie.gouv.fr...

They joined when they realized that the world was pushing them aside and they wern't even wanted.

Can you say BANDWAGON?

How can you say bandwagon when the were in there as early as they were?

www.globalsecurity.org...
"France had 2,000 military personnel in the region as of early November 2001. As of 07 November 2001 a total of 1,200 navy troops, 200 air force staff, 100 logistics staff and 500 military intelligence officers were engaged -- including personnel operating out of France. Aircraft included Mirage IVP reconnaissance jets and a Transall Gabriel plane equipped with electronic surveillance equipment. The French aircraft carrier, the Charles-de-Gaulle, deployed from Toulon for the north of the Indian Ocean, on December 1, 2001. It crossed the Suez Canal on December 11, 2001. Articulated around the aircraft carrier, the air and sea group also includes the anti-aircraft frigate Jean Bart, the anti-submarine frigates Jean de Vienne and the La Motte-Piquet, the supply tanker Meuse and the nuclear attack submarine Rubis. The Charles-de-Gaulle embarked 16 Super-Etendard (reconaissance and assault), two Rafale (air superiority), and two Hawkeye (air surveillance). The air and sea group, in addition to the support for the ground actions in Afghanistan, will take part in the maritime patrol of the zone, in order to avoid the exfiltration of terrorist leaders by sea.

A French task force composed of soldiers from the 21st Marine Infantry Regiment deployed on November 17, 2001, to survey the the modalities of operations aimed at repairing the airfield at Mazar-e Sharif. Deployement of additional French personnel tasked with securing the outside perimeter of the airfield began on 01 December 2001.

On 28 November 2001 CENTCOM Commander Gen. Tommy R. Franks stated that additional attack aircraft from the United States and France [and possibly other states] would be sent to Central Asia in early December. Kyrgyzstan was reportedly the most likely base for most of the aircraft. France reportedly requested permission to base six Mirage-2000 multi-purpose fighter bombers, two C-130 tanker aircraft and 200 technicians in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

France deployed its only aircraft carrier, the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle, to the Indian Ocean in early December 2001. The Carrier Tars Force centered around the De Gaulle, has been designated as CTF 473 by the French Navy. A total of up to 5,000 French servicemen may be sent to the region to participate in the military operation in Afghanistan. An electronic surveillance vessel -- the 4,870-ton converted supply ship Bougainville -- is in the region collecting intelligence. As of early March 2002, CTF 473 was composed of the De Gaulle, the "Jean Bart", "De Grasse", and "La Motte-Picquet" frigates, the Tanker "Somme" and the Nuclear Attack Submarine "Rubis".

Six French Mirage 2000 multirole combat fighter aircraft arrived on February 27, 2002, at Manas International Airport in Kyrgyzstan, to fly fighter and reconnaissance missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Originally posted by jtandchristie
French Military...oxymoron...I do remember the last time the French "had it under control".....Dien Bien Phu I believe? Yup..that was a good time for the French..

lol... then america went in and showed them how it's really done....

-koji K.

Originally posted by crmanager
Eddie you are right. France has a long and storied history of contribution to the world. No arguement.

But what have you done for me lately?

Abandon NATO. Create your own unneeded nuclear force. Remove foreign word because then offend your sensibilities. Diem Biem Phu.

An unneeded nuclear force?
Does France not have a right to defend itself just as the US does?

Originally posted by koji_K

Originally posted by jtandchristie
French Military...oxymoron...I do remember the last time the French "had it under control".....Dien Bien Phu I believe? Yup..that was a good time for the French..

lol... then america went in and showed them how it's really done....

-koji K.

Then the Vietnamese showed us how it's done! What a mess that whole conflict was.

For the French-bashers, I'd like to post this article, regarding an event that occured just months before the "Iraq War Powers" vote in the US which sparked the unfortunate wave of anti-french sentiment here.

French troops evacuate Americans in Ivory Coast

By FIACRE VIDJINGNINOU
Reuters

BOUAKE, Ivory Coast - French troops escorted American students and adults to safety at the start of an evacuation of foreigners trapped in Ivory Coast's battle-torn city of Bouake by an army uprising in which hundreds of people have died.

The first group to leave the rebel-held city traveled in a convoy from an American missionary school, where scores of children were among those sheltering from Ivory Coast's worst crisis since it won independence from France in 1960.

...

The Americans left the school in Bouake in a French-escorted convoy draped with U.S. flags. They headed for Yamoussoukro down a jungle road where the French had cleared with some difficulty trees felled by combatants as roadblocks.

"We thank God that the French came for us," said Sam Parham, an American living in Benin who was picking up his two sons at the school when the uprising began Thursday last week.

"There were many hours of firing overhead. There was tracer going over the compound and one mortar round hit inside the compound," he told Reuters.

Source: www.twincities.com.../printstory.jsp

-koji K.

It really sucks that an informative thread has degenerated to FRANCE BASHING. Yeah the French got their asses kicked in French Indochina. It is too bad that we were not smart enough to learn from their lesson, but then the CIA needed a cheap source of heroin and body bags to ship it back home in.

The US would not even exist if it were not for the French military assisstance it recieved during the Revolution against the UK.

yes, yes, and the French would be speaking German right now if we didn't save them in the World Wars, we get it...

crmanager...thanks for the laugh, hehe....that's one of the best descriptions I've heard of the French world role in a LONG time, hehe....

Sorry to start the French bashing, it was just to hard to resist...

French rifle for sale! Never fired, dropped only once! See? It's too damned hard...

Seriously though...anyone have the figures for the NATO forces in Afghanistan, vs. US forces? I'm just curious, to see the ratio, especially considering France's objections as of late.

The French have some real good fighters there called the French Foreign Legion, And they dont have any French people in them

Originally posted by Gazrok
Seriously though...anyone have the figures for the NATO forces in Afghanistan, vs. US forces? I'm just curious, to see the ratio, especially considering France's objections as of late.

The US has about 15,000 troops in Afghanistan according to the Washington Post.

According to NATO's site, there are 6472 NATO troops in Afghanistan.
They even have a breakdown of how many troops each country has contributed.
www.nato.int...

Some countries, like France, have troops there that operate outside of NATO.
Those figures are not included on that site.

I'll see if I can find out what those numbers are.

[edit on 9-8-2004 by AceOfBase]

Originally posted by Eddie999
France has done more for the world culturally, militarily and politically than the US ever has.

Yeah maybe in the 16th century they did. Armies all over the world use and copy French weapons. No wait even in the 16th century England made the better War ships. And every one in Europe must have picked Frances from of Goverment. Democracy elected officals now who was one of the first countires to adopt that form of Goverment since the Ancient Greeks? It must have been the French

Give me a break