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There was brighter news for NATO: French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced he was sending a battalion of troops and elite special forces ? expected to total around 1,000 soldiers ? to bolster the fight against Taliban militants in Afghanistan
The French offer of troops for Afghanistan will free up American troops to move south to Kandahar province. That averts the risk of a crisis within the NATO forces triggered by Canada's threat to pull out its 2,500 beleaguered soldiers there unless they got 1,000 reinforcements from another ally.
Sarkozy also told the NATO summit that he will decide next year on a French return to the alliance's integrated military command, more than four decades since Gen. Charles de Gaulle pulled out.
Both moves are a sign of Sarkozy's policy of drawing closer to the U.S.-led NATO alliance, although his speech also stressed France's desire to build up the defense role of the European Union.
I'm likin' this guy.......
This post edited by wader 09:58 AM 04/03/2008
The French offer of troops for Afghanistan will free up American troops to move south to Kandahar province. That averts the risk of a crisis within the NATO forces triggered by Canada's threat to pull out its 2,500 beleaguered soldiers there unless they got 1,000 reinforcements from another ally.
Sarkozy also told the NATO summit that he will decide next year on a French return to the alliance's integrated military command, more than four decades since Gen. Charles de Gaulle pulled out.
Both moves are a sign of Sarkozy's policy of drawing closer to the U.S.-led NATO alliance, although his speech also stressed France's desire to build up the defense role of the European Union.
I'm likin' this guy.......

This post edited by wader 09:58 AM 04/03/2008