Hollande confirms Afghanistan Exit in 2012

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1497859.html



Francois Hollande, French President-Elect, Confirms Afghanistan Exit In 2012

The Huffington Post | By Max J. Rosenthal Posted: 05/07/2012 4:56 pm Updated: 05/07/2012 4:58 pm












After his election to the French presidency on Sunday, Francois Hollande wasted no time in following through on one of his highest-profile campaign pledges.
Hollande's communications director, Manuel Valls, confirmed to the Telegraph on Monday that France will "announce the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan between now and the end of the year." The announcement will take place at the NATO summit being held in Chicago on May 20 and 21.
Members of the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, agreed in 2010 to end their combat role at the end of 2014 while slowly transferring control of sections of the country to Afghan security forces. Hollande, however, pledged a much more rapid withdrawal than envisioned by NATO during his run against outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, a foreign policy advisor to Hollande and potential defense minister, told Reuters last month that "French combat troops had no business in Afghanistan now and a pullout should be executed within eight months."
France had 3,308 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan as of April 12, 2012, making it the fifth-largest contributor to the war effort. While NATO has attempted to downplay past announcements of faster withdrawals by ISAF members, including the United States, the loss of French troops so early in the transition process could signal serious difficulties for the coalition.
President Barack Obama already had invited Hollande to meet at the White House before the NATO summit on "a range of shared economic and security challenges." The Telegraph claims that Obama is "likely to appeal to Mr Hollande to remain in Afghanistan" at the meeting.

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  French President and UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy waves to wellwishers as he and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, center right, leave after casting their votes for the second round of the presidential elections in Paris Sunday May 6, 2012. The election could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)
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  French President and UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, center left, casts his vote for the second round of the presidential elections as his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, left, looks on in Paris Sunday May 6, 2012. The election could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)
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  Parisians queue to cast their ballots for the second round of the presidential election in Paris Sunday, May 6, 2012. The election could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
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  Former International Monetary Fund leader, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, waves as he leaves a polling station after voting for the second round of the French presidential elections in Sarcelles, north of Paris, Sunday, May 6, 2012. The election could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)
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  A voter casts her ballot for the second round of the presidential elections in Paris Sunday May 6, 2012. The election could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/laurent Cipriani)
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  French far-right leader of the National Front Party Marine Le Pen, leaves the polling booth prior to casting her vote in the second round of the presidential elections in Henin-Beaumont, northern France, Sunday, May 6, 2012. The election could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)
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  An Ultra Orthodox Jewish man opens a curtain of a voting both before casting his vote for the French presidential elections in a voting station at French consulate in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, May 6, 2012. French citizens voted in a presidential run-off election on Sunday that could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
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  Socialist Party candidate for the presidential election Francois Hollande waves from his car as he tours through villages near Tulle, central France, after voting in the second round of the presidential elections, Sunday, May 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affa...rom-obama-nato


New French president to formally announce Afghanistan withdrawal


By Julian Pecquet - 05/07/12 05:27 PM ET
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Newly elected French President François Hollande will formally announce at this month's NATO summit that he plans to withdraw French troops from Afghanistan in 2012 despite reservations from President Obama and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Britain's Telegraph newspaper is reporting.
Hollande spokesman Manuel Valls said France would use the summit to “announce the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan between now and the end of the year,” the Telegraph reports. France has about 3,400 troops in Afghanistan, the fifth largest contingent.






Hollande, who takes office next week, vowed during the presidential campaign to pull out all French forces in 2012 after four French troops were shot dead by a rogue Afghan soldier.Delivering on that promise could prove touchy for France's relationship with NATO and the United States. An early withdrawal before 2014 would need to be agreed upon by NATO at the summit, something that seems far from assured.
Obama called Hollande on Sunday to congratulate him and offered to meet with him ahead of the May 20-21 summit. Likely topics include Afghanistan, where Obama last week signed an agreement for residual U.S. forces to stay past 2014.
On Monday NATO announced that Rasmussen plans to speak with Hollande “very soon” about his plans for a withdrawal.
“France as we all know is a staunch ally,” NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in her opening remarks during Monday's press briefing. “NATO counts on France, and France can count on NATO.”
Ahead of the summit, Lungescu said, there's “agreement that we're sticking to the timetable for transition in Afghanistan. We're sticking to the principle of 'in together, out together.' And we're sticking to our pledge of an enduring commitment to Afghanistan after transition is completed by the end of 2014.”

[Shah-i-Kot]

I expect many of you to press the Thank button for this great news!!

[randolph85]

3,000 out of the 150,000 combat troops. not exactly a big deal. the french are like every other country with a small contingent there, they don't really do anything.

[Shah-i-Kot]

Jean-Yves Le Drian, a foreign policy advisor to Hollande and potential defense minister, told Reuters last month that "French combat troops had no business in Afghanistan now and a pullout should be executed within eight months."


Australia is also expediting withdrawal

Who do you guys think is next?

[BarakzaiAbdali]

3,000 out of the 150,000 combat troops. not exactly a big deal. the french are like every other country with a small contingent there, they don't really do anything.

Hi Randolph,

Take this into account. I think it makes somewhat of a difference when the analysis is in depth. Its less warm bodies form other countries to patrol dangerous areas.

In Marching Towards Hell:


"And when during the presidential debate campaign one heard Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama pledge to send two more US brigades to Afghanistan to 'finish the job' one had to wonder if either man or his senior advisors ever looked up a map of the country. There about 6,000 soldiers in two US combat brigades and probably only half of them are combatants--shooters if you will. Afghanistan is as big as Texas and shares a 2,600 km border with Pakistan. The Taliban can use about a third of Pakistan's territory--the Pashtun tribal region--for safe haven, training, and launching operations against NATO forces...When then could the two senators have been thinking? Were they both ignorant of geographical facts? ... Or were they simply trying to put off delivering to voters the news that saving Washingtons Afghan nation building project would require 200,000 or more troops and then would still have only the slightest chance of succeeding?

"Then, too, we have conducted the Afghan war with startlingly cavalier disregard for geographic realities. It is a country that is as big as Texas... how many troops do the US and NATO have in Afghanistan to defeat an accelerating insurgency? About fifty thousand at this writing. Yes, no kidding, fifty thousand. And in that total there are contingents-- Germans and Danes, for example-- whose rules of engagement make their primary tasks school-building, police training, and well digging, not combat mean to kill insurgents. Even among the national contingents most aggressively fighting the Taliban... the number of support personal today must be a larger percentage of the total force than was the case with the 120,000 man contingent that the Soviet Union fielded.... It always has surprised me that no one in the US media ever asks the US secretary of defense of charman of the joint chiefs of staff what the 'tooth to nail' ratio is for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, or in Iraq for that matter. I suspect that the actual number of combat troops that can be fielded on any given day is only the fraction of the fifty thousand man total and smaller than the reciprocal total for the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and their allies."

[BarakzaiAbdali]

3,000 out of the 150,000 combat troops. not exactly a big deal. the french are like every other country with a small contingent there, they don't really do anything.

A major issue I have noted with the Afghan government officials that come through Yale is their coordinated??? lack of reality. I think that those involved with trying to maintain the cashflow to Kabul are doing the following:

1. You seen those Arnold commercials for California? The ones where Clint Eastwood talks about how awesome California is and they ignore just about every other important metric including employment, cost of living, etc? Well there appears to be some sort of coordinated effort amongst these officials to paint a rosy picture and say:
"Noooo, its all great seriously... come take a camping trip near the banks of the Helmand... the fish feed right out of your hand... seriously... its like Dubai and BETTER. Ooooh governor sherzai just likes to drive faast the road is real safe. REALLY!

2. Ethnic disputes and lack of fair army regiment composition? ANA being corrupt?
Huuuuuh? I had no idea I thought Pashtuns were Tajiks... silly me! Ohhhhh... you mean those Uzbeks... I thought you meant the Tajik Uzbeks... why didnt you say so since everyone is sooooo into this whole non Khorasan Afghanistan groove!
Afghan police? Corrupt? Shiiiiiiish they could run LA!

3. You start talking about safety and they start throwing out buildings built in Herat... medical schools created in some out of the way place... girls with I love Hilary Clinton T Shirts sitting in Kabul Med etc etc etc etc.

And yet they ignore the fact that the overwhelming evidence shows all of this supposed infrastructure deteriorates the minute it touches their grubby little hands.

Atmar's guy just started sputtering about how diaspora needs to stay out of Afghanistan's business. I said I wholeheartedly agree and that Mr. Atmar and Mr. Karzai qualify in that category since they either abandoned or killed their people during the Russian war.

usually, its just silence that meets you when the logic smacks them up side the head.

Its a sign of growing desperation... once again very eerily similar to those urban neighborhood styles of pictures being run the in press everyone found out that Dheim had no support.

** the grubby little hands above is in reference to the government officials and expats... not the people.

[Shah-i-Kot]

the irony of this all, especially the irony of the Karzai regime.

For all their false anti-Pakistan rhetoric, they seem quite intent on Pakistan reopening the supply routes to NATO/Karzai. Just a few days ago, Karzai's Ambassador to Australia was saying how the international community should pressurize Pakistan to reopen the NATO ground supply routes.

Doesn't that make them Pro-Pakistan when Pakistan supports the NATO war?

So its all distortions and garbage. They are simply a bunch of selective clowns who wish that all nations support the NATO war/occupation of Afghanistan.

[Shah-i-Kot]

Hollande victory shakes up Nato’s Afghan war plans

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-1-107129-Hollande-victory-shakes-up-Nato%20s-Afghan-war-plans

Hollande victory shakes up Nato’s Afghan war plans


Tuesday, May 08, 2012


BRUSSELS: After pledging to speed up France's pullout from Afghanistan, incoming president Francois Hollande will soon have to reassure Nato allies about his decision to end combat earlier than planned.

Hollande made a campaign promise to start bringing 3,300 French soldier’s home this year, ending his country's combat role two years earlier than Nato's carefully crafted plan to fully hand security control to Afghans by 2014.

"I believe that, without taking any risks for our troops, it is the right thing to withdraw our combat troops by the end of 2012," Hollande said last week. The Socialist leader will bring this message to fellow Nato leaders when they meet at a summit hosted by US President Barack Obama in Chicago on May 20-21, just days after Hollande's oath of office.

Nato military officials say the alliance had already made contingency plans in the event Hollande defeated right-wing incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy. Nevertheless, a diplomat acknowledged that the new leader's stance "was not warmly welcomed" at alliance headquarters.

Afghan officials downplayed Hollande's pledge, insisting that Afghan forces will be ready to take over security responsibility in 2013 and doubting that France has enough time to complete a withdrawal by the end of this year anyway.

But the early French pullout challenges Nato assurances that there would be no "rush to the exit" in Afghanistan, even though the war is unpopular in the West after a decade of fighting that has killed almost 3,000 foreign troops.

In Chicago, Nato wants to show a united front, repeating its "in together, out together" mantra as it fine-tunes the final phase of a mission that has yet to defeat the Taliban despite the presence of 130,000 foreign troops.

"Mr Hollande made clear during the election campaign that any decisions on the next stage will be taken in consultation with Nato allies and that's exactly why all Nato leaders are meeting in Chicago," said alliance spokeswoman Oana Lungescu, stressing that the 2014 timeline would be reaffirmed.

Canada and the Netherlands have already switched to training missions while Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard indicated last month that her troops could begin leaving as early as next year.

Sarkozy himself had surprised some allies by deciding earlier this year to end France's combat mission in 2013 after four French troops were killed by a rogue Afghan soldier.

Francois Heisbourg, special adviser at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, said the Nato alliance wanted to avoid any drama as it attempted a smooth withdrawal from Afghanistan, even if success was uncertain in the end.

"Everybody is aware of this, and Nato has no interest in creating a controversy" with Hollande, he said."The priority is to avoid giving the impression of a disorderly withdrawal." A senior Nato military official said the Afghan transition would be "fairly well managed" despite Hollande's plan, as commanders had already anticipated the possibility that he might be elected and prepared accordingly.

Nato military planners "are paying attention to various nations and political situations all the time," the official said. A senior Afghan defence official doubted whether an early withdrawal was feasible since there are only seven months left in the year for a complex withdrawal operation.

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/a...om-afghanistan


Hollande to confirm early French exit from Afghanistan


by Joel Shenton
09 May 2012



France is set to confirm plans to withdraw all of its troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year as part of a policy initiated by president-elect Francois Hollande.

The country currently contributes 3,308 troops to operations in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force and is the fifth largest contributor behind the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. Before being elected on May 6, Hollande had pledged to withdraw all French troops from the country by the end of 2012, a year earlier than his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy had intended.

His spokesman has since confirmed that the country is to officially announce the move at a major North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in Chicago next week. The week-long summit is expected to see troop-contributing nations agree their withdrawal timetable ahead of the expected end of combat operations in 2015, but it is not clear whether France's move will affect other nations' plans.

Timetables began to shift earlier this year when US defence secretary Leon Panetta told reporters that major combat operations were likely to end in mid-to-late 2013. The UK, which plans for full withdrawal of its 9,500 remaining troops by the end of 2014, is expected to broadly mirror America's timetable.

Last month, however, Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that all 1,550 Australian troops would leave Afghanistan in 2013. Although not a member of NATO, Australia's plans could be indicative of a 'rush for the exits' in Afghanistan, which senior commanders have warned against.

[Shah-i-Kot]

3,000 out of the 150,000 combat troops. not exactly a big deal. the french are like every other country with a small contingent there, they don't really do anything.

French forces (involved in combat) are being withdrawn.

It is a big deal. In fact, NATO and Obama have expressed their disappointment in this. Merkel has "warned" "allies" to not break with the withdrawal timeline.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/dotmil/2012/05/10/us-to-press-french-president-elect-francois-hollande-to-reverse-afghan-withdrawal-vow

Its no small matter. Neither is Pakistan's closure of ground supply routes to NATO/Karzai which will extend to all other areas most probably- a sure thing with Imran Khan's probable victory (polls show he is the most popular politician in Pakistan).

Nor is Iran's opposition to Karzai/NATO occupation.

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/npr1337349851-French-Plan-To-Pull-Troops-From-Afghanistan-Starts-Busy-Diplomatic-Days.html

Plan To Pull Troops From Afghanistan Starts Busy Diplomatic Days
May 18, 2012
by: Mark Memmott
Before President Obama welcomes world leaders to Camp David and Chicago, new French President Francois Hollande is expected to say he wants his nation's 3,300 troops home from Afghanistan by year's end. That could upset other NATO nations.

Later today, President Obama welcomes leaders from the Group of 8 nations to Camp David, Md., for a two-day summit. (Which countries are part of that group? See below.)
Sunday, he joins NATO heads of state - and invited leaders such as President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan - in Chicago for the 25th NATO summit. That gathering continues on Monday.
But before all that, he hosts new French President Francois Hollande at the White House this morning. And Hollande is expected, as The Associated Press reports, "to announce a pullout of all French combat troops from Afghanistan by year's end" - about two years early (there are about 3,300 French troops in Afghanistan).
"That could infuriate NATO allies and embarrass his re-election-minded host - and may well be logistically impossible," AP adds.
The G8 nations are:

— Canada
— France
— Germany
— Italy
— Japan
— Russia
— U.K.
— U.S.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/holl...-out-1.1299985


Hollande reaffirms Afghanistan pull-out

May 18 2012 at 08:07pm
By SAPA
Comment on this story

Associated Press
French President Francois Hollande reminded US President Barack Obama on Friday of a promised withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

French President Francois Hollande reminded US President Barack Obama Friday of a promised withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan by the end of year, but said France would provide support in other ways.
“I recalled to President Obama that I had made a promise to withdraw our combat troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2012,” Hollande said at the White House. “I also stipulated that there would still be support in another form.” - Sapa-AFP