French adding to forces in Afstan

Every bit helps and at least the government is holding firm in the face of public opinion problems (unlike...)

One month after ten French soldiers died in a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan [more here, see Update], the government announced Monday that it would reinforce its presence there, sending more troops and better equipment despite the outpouring of anguish over the deaths.

There have been several reports - in the media and from leftist opposition politicians - that French troops were poorly equipped for their deployment in the rugged mountains east of Kabul. But Prime Minister François Fillon said during a debate in Parliament on the Afghan deployment that the government was more determined than ever to stay.

"The president of the republic and government have learned the lesson from this murderous ambush," Fillon said in the National Assembly. "We have decided to strengthen our military means.

"Not acting would leave the Afghans at the mercy of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, would re-expose us to the risk of terrorism and would leave our allies to fight for us alone."

Lawmakers later voted, 343 to 210, to keep the French military operation in place - a reflection of the strong majority held by the conservative bloc of President

There are currently 2,600 French troops on the ground in Afghanistan as part of a NATO mission and an American-led counterterrorism force.

Fillon said that France would send an additional 100 soldiers to Afghanistan "within weeks." The troops would come with Caracal [pretty big] and Gazelle [small] helicopters, drones, surveillance equipment and artillery that is better adapted to mountainous terrain, he said...

An opinion poll by the BVA institute published in the weekly L'Express on Sept. 16 suggested that nearly two in three French people wanted their soldiers to come home.

Reinforcing public discontent were the reports about French troops being sent into battle poorly equipped.

On Saturday, the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail reported that, according to a NATO document, the ambushed soldiers had run out of ammunition about 90 minutes into the battle and that their only radio had lost contact with their base, leaving them unable to call for reinforcements.

Fillon dismissed the article, saying that there was no such NATO document, only a rushed internal e-mail message. He said the soldiers had not run out of ammunition and that the radio went dead for only "a few instants" after the radio operator was killed. "The reality is cruel enough without adding lies," he said.

The parliamentary vote Monday was aimed at bolstering the legitimacy of an increasingly unpopular mission.

Sarkozy chose to act in accordance with a recent constitutional amendment that obliges the head of state to obtain parliamentary approval for military operations lasting four months or longer. He was not technically required to seek the vote because the French deployment in Afghanistan began before the constitutional measure passed.

Before the amendment, France was the only Western democracy that could send troops on open-ended combat missions without legislative approval [actually not true in Canada but the Conservative government has come close to making such a vote a constitutional convention]...