France’s Sarkozy & Afghanistan

10:46 pm EST May 12th, 2007 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

So, I get this channel Mhz that occasionally shows France 24 which is an English language news station from the French and while I don’t think it’s as good as BBC News they noted a story that our press didn’t really cover (because international news coverage is done better even in a poor country like Jamaica than in America, I’ve seen that first hand). When he was running for the French presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy said he may pull French troops out of the NATO force in Afghanistan.

French presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy outlined his stance on key foreign policy issues Thursday, saying he might pull France’s troops out of a NATO force in Afghanistan if he is elected.

Now, a French national has been held by the Taliban for a while now and they said they would wait until after the French election to make a move. Now, they’ve released the hostage.

Taliban captors Friday said they had freed a French aid worker
kidnapped more than five weeks back in southern Afghanistan. But the
fate of his three Afghan colleagues is yet to be decided.

Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi phoned Pajhwok Afghan
News to say Eric Damfreville – working for Terre d’Enfance (A World For
Our Children) – was handed over to tribal elders in Maiwand district of
the militancy-plagued at 5:30pm.

…

He said the aid worker was freed in the wake of a recent statement from
newly-elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he would ponder
over the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan – a key demand of the
captors.

Cons in America have acted as if the election of Mr. Sarkozy is a French turn towards neocon policy. But that doesn’t seem to be the case at all.