Vive la France!

In a stunning (hardly) announcement today, France has announced that it will be withdrawing it's troops from Afghanistan.

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 — in NATO's International Security Assistance Force. France has balked at sending its 1,100-strong NATO contingent outside the relatively safe Afghan capital, Kabul.

"There is a general reorganization of our (troops)," Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said during a visit to Afghanistan. The minister's remarks were aired on France-Info radio.

Among planned changes is a "withdrawal of special forces from Jalalabad in the coming weeks," she said.

Are we really surprised? What amazes me the most is that France has had more than it's fair share of dealings with terrorism through the years. If any nation in Europe should understand the clear and present danger presented by allowing these groups to continue to exist, it's the French. Yet and still, they plan to withdraw, citing "reorganization" as the reason.

Take a good, hard, look, America, at what happens when you allow the socialists to take charge of the government. Our socialists disguise themselves by calling themselves Democrats.

However, this will not, in the long run, affect operations in Afghanistan, methinks. The French have pretty much not been participating for the last year or better.

On Saturday, U.S. Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) said Afghan, U.S., Canadian, British and Dutch forces have done most of the fighting in Afghanistan over the past year at a time when ambushes, suicide bombings and other attacks have multiplied. Those nations have also borne the brunt of the casualties, and McCain called on NATO nations to send troops into more dangerous areas of Afghanistan.

The elite troops have been deployed in southeastern Afghanistan since July 2003 to help bolster the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban and the search for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Caron said the decision to withdraw the French special forces was made "in concert with our partners, notably the Americans."

I reckon it must be mighty damned hard to put down a good bottle of French wine to go after an international criminal.

They will be continuing to supply air support, however...

Despite the pullout, Alliot-Marie said that France intends to maintain its air power "which has backed up coalition forces numerous times" and is adding two helicopters in the advanced zone between Jalalabad, in the southeast, and Kabul.

Two helicopters. HOOWAH.

Once and always, an American Fighting Man

Jules Crittenden has a few words about the French too.

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"The time has come" the Blind Shiek said, "to talk of other things..."

OK (and yes my speech teachers from both high school AND college would CRINGE at me beginning with "OK" but OK...) the Blind Sheik has SPOKEN, by Jiminy, and boy what he said.

"My Brothers...If they [the Americans] kill me, which they will certainly do – hold my funeral and send my corpse to my family, but do not let my blood be shed in vain. Rather, extract the most violent revenge, and remember your brother who spoke the truth and died for the will of God...The Mujahid Sheikh Omar Abdel al Rahman. In the name of God the kind and merciful."

Now here's the rub. We're supposedly "killing" this guy, right?

Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted in 1996 of conspiring to blow up New York City landmarks, has long suffered from diabetes and heart ailments and has spent much of his imprisonment at the Springfield Medical Center for federal prisoners.

Full story here.

We are killing him with DOCTORS and NURSES. We want him dead so badly that we're treating his ailments. We want him dead so badly that we're not leaving him to suffer in a cell without treatment. But I want you to take a look at the hatred that they show for us EVEN when we make sure that they have medical treatment (mind you, yes, I realize the sonofabitch is in prison, but that is beside the point. We're providing him with medical care). I understand someone who is being, say, beheaded, for example, calling upon his nation to avenge him. That's perfectly understandable.

Wait. Who beheads people again? Oh yeah, the terrorists, that's right. That's after the beatings and such, where I'm sure that they make sure that doctors are present afterwards to treat their prisoners wounds...

You know, these people scream and cry about honor and righteousness and whatnot. I say they're full of it. If they want to follow the example of a Muslim warrior who WAS a man of honor, they need to look to the example of Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt. Now there was a Muslim Warrior I have to say that even I respect. The man was a man of honor. There is not ONE among these modern Jihadists who is worthy to even utter the man's name from their lips.

Saladin, by the way, was a Kurd. Let me think, who are the people Saddam Hussein was executing in droves in Iraq?

Says a hell of a lot in my book. And yes, Chivalry, Valor and Honor are still traits alive and well in some of us today, they are NOT dead.

Personally, I hope the Sheik survives this latest health ailment. I personally believe that he has more suffering to do in jail here in this life before going on to the next. I also think he's going to be in for a BIG surprise when he crosses over to the other side. The desert ain't the only place that's hot, baby...

Once and always, an American Fighting Man

Others discussing this:
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, Redstate, Hot Air, The Jawa Report and Wizbang

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Who believes in coincidence?

Secret negotiations between conflicting factions are nothing new. It is of little surprise to learn that the US has been in secret negotiations with the conflicting factions in Iraq for the past couple of months.

SECRET talks in which senior American officials came face-to-face with some of their most bitter enemies in the Iraqi insurgency broke down after two months of meetings, rebel commanders have disclosed.

The meetings, hosted by Iyad Allawi, Iraq’s former prime minister, brought insurgent commanders and Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, together for the first time.

After months of delicate negotiations Allawi, a former Ba’athist and a secular Shi’ite, persuaded three rebel leaders to travel to his villa in Amman, the Jordanian capital, to see Khalilzad in January.

“The meetings came about after persistent requests from the Americans. It wasn’t because they loved us but because they didn’t have a choice,” said a rebel leader who took part.

Is it just me, or does is there something fishy about the timing of the breakdown of the negotiations?

Last week the long-awaited report of the Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by James Baker, the former secretary of state, and Lee Hamilton, a former congressman, called for America to seek to engage with all parties in Iraq, with the exception of Al-Qaeda.

Personally, it makes me wonder about the timing of the breakdown, with the release of the ISG report. It makes me wonder if the insurgent groups were biding their time during the negotiations to see exactly what the report called for, and finding it not to their liking (these are the Sunni factions, after all, who are at odds with the Shiite factions that the ISG report wants to include in determining the fate of Iraq), decided that the negotiations were not in their best interest.

It seems to me, having read the ISG report, that the ISG is thinking in terms of all of Islam being under one umbrella. That's bad thinking, because it isn't the case. The Shiites and the Sunni's have been at odds for YEARS before our large scale involvement in the current operations we are conducting in Afghanistan and Iraq. To think that they can all be labeled under one grouping and that they will agree unanimously to things being dictated to them from a group like the ISG is unrealistic, at best, and fatal to the US and countless others at minimum.

Until the US gets it into our heads that we ARE dealing with two factions of Islam, not just one as a whole, suggestions by groups like the ISG are a waste of time and money (1.3 million dollars wasted in the case of the ISG).

Read the story in full here.

Once and always, an American Fighting Man

Others discussing this:
Joust The Facts.
Captain's Quarters.
Freedom's Zone.
Hyscience.

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