Troops in a military base in France have opposed their deployment to Afghanistan amid dwindling support of French forces being there.
According to French media, troops in the 27th battalion stationed in a southern France military base said on Friday that they were unwilling to go to Afghanistan as part of France's mission in the central Asian country.
The troops' refusal to go to the war-ravaged country comes as 10 French soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in August.
The August ambush is the deadliest ground attack on international forces since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the heaviest single death toll for the French military since the 1983 bombing of a barracks in Beirut killed 58 French paratroopers.
The Taliban and Former PM Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who leads Hezb-i-Islami group, separately claimed responsibility for the attack on the French troops amid speculation that they were killed by 'friendly-fire' from NATO planes that had come to help them escape the ambush.
The attack shocked France and sparked fierce debate about the country's presence in Afghanistan. Despite calls to withdraw, French lawmakers have recently approved an extension of the country's involvement in the Afghan conflict.
Despite the fact that 50 percent of the French people oppose the deployment of thousands of troops to Afghanistan, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced at the last NATO summit in April that he would send an additional 700 French soldiers to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, bringing the total to about 3,000.
Criticism of Sarkozy's policies increased following the death of the 10 French soldiers. He has also faced severe criticism for being too close to US President George W. Bush's administration.(source) (am still looking for a French media source)
Now I could be totally insensitive and say, well, the're French, what do you expect. But, I am more inclined to say, this could just be the beginning of a larger scale revolt against the politicians desire for constant war, the constant politics of fear, the big brother databases which are worse in France than they are here in the UK.
These guys have had enough, and when the military have had enough, the politicians need to watch their arses.
Meanwhile in Germany, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called for the mandate of the elite KSK special forces in Afghanistan not to be renewed.
In an interview with the Spiegel news magazine, Steinmeier said the special forces haven't been deployed even once in the past three years. Up to 100 special forces can be sent to Afghanistan at a time under Germany's role in the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom in that country.
The mandate is due for renewal next month. Steinmeier said the clear focus of Germany's commitment in Afghanistan was its role in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
(source)
Poland formally ended its Iraq mission in the Shiite province of Diwaniyah on Saturday leaving US troops to take their place, as an Iraqi commander warned insurgency could re-emerge.
Poland's final contingent of 900 troops would return home by end of the month and the withdrawal process was already underway, a military official told journalists at the ceremony in this central Iraqi town.
(source)
In the UK, Brig Carleton-Smith is the Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade which has just completed its second tour of Afghanistan.
He paid tribute to his forces and said they had "taken the sting out of the Taleban for 2008", but he stated: "We're not going to win this war".
(source)
Now remember the methods Governments are using to achieve their goals.
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such
time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic
and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally
important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent,
for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension,
the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
- Joseph Goebbels
The politics are being pushed to the ridiculous, people are seeing through the lies now, the military as we can see above are getting to breaking point, and the economics, well we can all see what the hell is going down with the economies of the world.
From Germany, Hypo Real Estate Holdings AG, the
ailing German property lender, said a 35 billion-euro ($49
billion) government-backed bailout plan collapsed as commercial
banks withdrew their support. The intended rescue package involved a liquidity line to
be provided by a consortium of several financial institutions,
Hypo Real Estate said in a statement on the DBF news wire today.
The consortium has now declined to provide the line. The group is now in the process of determining the consequences of this'' and alternative measures are being investigated.''
(source)
