[R-G] Sarkozy Wins Approval for French Role In Afghanistan

[Anthony Fenton]

Sarkozy Wins Approval for French Role In Afghanistan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/22/AR2008092202877.html
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 23, 2008; A16

PARIS, Sept. 22 -- The French government won parliamentary backing  
Monday for its domestically unpopular military involvement in  
Afghanistan. Accused of following an unwise policy dictated by  
Washington, however, it fell far short of the national consensus  
sought by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The vote in the National Assembly, 343 to 210, authorized Sarkozy to  
keep France's 3,000-member military contingent alongside U.S. and  
other international forces in Afghanistan as the Bush administration  
reviews its strategy and considers sending reinforcements to counter a  
surge in Taliban attacks. But a sharp debate that preceded the  
balloting also put on vivid display the public unease over what  
opposition legislators called a poorly thought-out commitment without  
an exit strategy, in a faraway and little-understood land.

"You give the French people the perspective of a limitless  
continuation of a failed strategy," said the opposition Socialist  
Party's parliamentary leader, Jean-Marc Ayrault. He added: "We no  
longer accept the drift we see at work in Afghanistan. We are slipping  
into a war of occupation that has no limits, neither in duration nor  
in objectives."

The Socialists, France's largest opposition group, said they were  
voting against the government not because they advocated a precipitous  
withdrawal from Afghanistan. Rather, they said, they wanted to  
condition France's presence there on a greater French role in decision  
making, a timetable for withdrawal and increased emphasis on civilian  
development projects rather than what they called a U.S. policy  
weighted too heavily toward military goals.

The vote, in a special session of the National Assembly, was the first  
application of a constitutional amendment adopted July 21 requiring  
the government to gain parliamentary approval for any French military  
deployment overseas that lasts more than four months. The upper  
chamber, the Senate, followed suit with a favorable vote, 209 to 119,  
several hours later.

The amendment, pushed by Sarkozy, marked a departure from French  
political tradition, which has given the president broad power over  
foreign relations since the time of Charles de Gaulle nearly half a  
century ago.

Doubts about France's role in Afghanistan have risen markedly among  
the public here since 10 French troops were killed and 21 were wounded  
in an ambush near Kabul on Aug. 18. Their deaths were a sudden and  
searing reminder of the potential costs of Sarkozy's decision in April  
to increase the number of French troops on the ground and expand their  
mission to include front-line assignments.

That decision was hailed in Washington as a sign of Sarkozy's  
willingness to cooperate more energetically than his predecessor,  
Jacques Chirac, in the struggle against terrorism. But it found little  
enthusiasm in France, even before the 10 troops were killed. A survey  
taken last week by the BVA polling firm showed that 62 percent of  
those queried opposed France's participation in the International  
Security and Assistance Force, which is led by NATO.

The Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail reported over the weekend  
that according to a classified NATO report, the ambushed French troops  
ran out of ammunition and were unable to communicate with their  
headquarters during a long night of combat. French military officials,  
after first denying any such report, said Monday that it was a  
preliminary description of what had happened, prepared by a U.S.  
Special Forces commander who did not have all the facts.

Prime Minister François Fillon, presenting the government's case to  
Parliament, denied that the troops ran out of ammunition, saying they  
were resupplied by helicopter. He said communications were out only  
for a few minutes, after a radio technician was killed.

At the same time, Fillon said the Defense Ministry has drawn lessons  
from the killings. In response, he announced, the French mission in  
Afghanistan will get more Caracal and Gazelle helicopters, more drones  
and radio monitoring equipment, and another mortar squad. The new  
equipment will require dispatching an additional 100 troops, he added.

Fillon, confident that Sarkozy's parliamentary majority would result  
in backing for the military mission, nevertheless urged a broad yes  
vote to demonstrate national unity in support of French troops on the  
ground. He reminded opponents that French troops were first sent to  
Afghanistan in 2001 under a government headed by Lionel Jospin, a  
Socialist.

"For Afghanistan, I believe in the need for a national consensus, and  
this consensus -- I am aware -- cannot be decreed," Fillon said. "It  
is built by listening to the convictions and questions of each one of  
us."

France must remain in Afghanistan, he added, because of its  
commitments at the United Nations, because of its friendship with the  
United States and other allies, and because it believes that  
smothering terrorist refuges and building a democratic Afghanistan is  
worth the sacrifice.

"We must be coherent," he said. "If we believe in universal values,  
then we must take the risk of struggling for them."