France To Mull Faster Exit From Afghanistan

[ghundal]

France To Mull Faster Exit From Afghanistan

France To Mull Faster Exit From Afghanistan : NPR


by The Associated Press



France and the U.S. are considering speeding up their withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in the wake of Osama bin Laden's death, the French foreign minister said Wednesday.
France has about 4,000 troops in in the U.S.- and NATO-led missions in Afghanistan, and minister Alain Juppe said France and its allies would be examining how to proceed.
Speaking on France 24 TV, Juppe said NATO's goal in Afghanistan was not kill bin Laden but to help its government establish authority and bring peace and democracy for its people.
Now that bin Laden is dead, Juppe said accelerating the planned withdrawal by 2014 is "one of the options we're going to consider. The Americans are also thinking about it."
Britain's foreign minister, William Hague, struck a different note, saying that the death would prompt Britain to fight terrorism "with renewed determination."
He said that bin Laden's death should encourage the Taliban to make "a decisive break" from al-Qaida, but he made no mention of an accelerated timetable for withdrawal.
Earlier this week British Prime Minister David Cameron seemed to play down the notion that bin Laden's death would lead to an early exit for British troops — who are due to end their combat role there by 2015.
Bin Laden died during an American special forces raid in Pakistan early Monday.

[ghundal]

'US, France eye faster Afghanistan exit'
Thu May 5, 2011 12:51AM
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French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe
The US and France are mulling over plans to accelerate the withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan following Osama bin Laden's death, the French foreign minister says.


Speaking on France 24 TV on Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said, now that the al-Qaeda chief is dead, a faster exit of troops from Afghanistan by 2014 is "one of the options we're going to consider. The Americans are also thinking about it," the Associated Press reported.

On late Sunday, US President Barack Obama stated that the alleged architecture of the 9/11 attacks was reportedly shot in the head by US forces, who swooped down on bin Laden's compound in a helicopter-borne operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, killing bin Laden himself after a decade-long manhunt.

Juppe, who said France and its NATO allies would be examining how to proceed with the planned withdrawal, also noted that killing bin Laden was not the NATO's objective in Afghanistan.

Some 4,000 French soldiers are currently stationed under NATO command in Afghanistan, fighting a protracted war that has entered its tenth year. Last year saw a considerable spike in the number of attacks on US-led soldiers in Afghanistan with more than 710 troops killed.

Although the reported killing of bin Laden has spurred talks for a faster withdrawal from the Afghan war, British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday struck a different tone, saying bin Laden's death is clearly a helpful development, but it will not necessarily change any timetables.

Meanwhile, analysts and military experts believe that the United States delayed the killing of bin Laden to continue the presence of US-led forces in war-torn Afghanistan and that the lack of transparency over bin Laden's death has cast further doubt over the announcement.

"The American people are not supportive of the war in Afghanistan to begin with. Now that Osama bin Laden is killed, I think they are going to have much less reason to support it," Larry Korb of the Center for American Progress told in an interview with Press TV on Wednesday.

HA/MGH

[faye]

we shall see.......