wo French soldiers watch a CH-531 helicopter land outside Kabul in August 2002. A French special forces officer was killed in clashes with Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan.(AFP/File)
Posted on 03/04/2006 7:11:46 AM PST by Flavius
PARIS (AFP) - A French special forces officer was killed in clashes with Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, the defence ministry and the military said in a joint statement. ADVERTISEMENT click here
The statement gave no details of the death of the officer of a marine commando unit, the second French soldier to be killed in action in Afghanistan.
Some 200 French special forces troops under US command are fighting guerrillas of the former Taliban regime in southeast Afghanistan, the statement said.
Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie had sent her condolences to the family of the dead officer, who was not identified.
wo French soldiers watch a CH-531 helicopter land outside Kabul in August 2002. A French special forces officer was killed in clashes with Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan.(AFP/File)
Was he shot in the back while fleeing?
What are the French doing there? Are they doing some cover-up work for their government?
God be with his family.
All of a sudden the French jokes I've made in the past are not funny at all.
Shame on you. Grow up.
"well i've poked fun at some French dealings in past. But salute to all the heros that are on the line."
Well said.
Infantile and insensitive.
There are troops from about a dozen nations in Afghanistan, working under the direction of the US. I really didn't know the French had sent any, but maybe its time to say thanks very much !
One of the news stories I covered during Operation Desert Storm was of a French engineer unit who rescued the American crew of a personnel carrier that had wandered into an Iraqi minefield. The American captain who went with them received the Silver Star for his actions; the French Legionaires figured they were just doing their job.
I'd suggest you not ask your questions of the G.Is they pulled out of the minefield, nor of their families.
There are plenty of weaklings, cowards and appeasers in the French government, to be certain. Those qualities are far less common among those of the French military whomI have observed firsthand.
This constant rant I see here about French "cowardice" is not only put to shame by this brave man but also by history: try telling that to the descendants of the 1.5 million young men killed in WW1 stopping the Germans from taking Paris, the thousands so disfigured that they had to live the rest of their lives in sanatoria in southern France, the French Army veterans of Indochina and Algeria. I have no doubt much of the French Army performed poorly and despicably in WW2, but many may have felt that they had been hollowed out by the strategy of attrition at Verdum, the Somme and other enormous battles in WW1.
Not so, and most of the French troopies I've known laugh as hard as anyone at most of them- and repeat them.
They will get pretty testy, hovever, if you mock their Code of Honor. I do not reccomend it unless you're deliberately trying to provoke a fight.
Prayers going up for the soldier's family.
Amen. The French are our first allies; that we became an independent country in the first place is partly due to them.
Of course you are entitled to your remarks, but why? The Article states they are under US Command. And yes, I'm a vet. In fact I'm a 1st Avn Bde vet like you. That's why I don't get it?
Why they are there? To kill bad guys, I hope.
Good place to train a core corps of future NCOs for the future, when the SHTF again in France. The writing is on the wall...
It's not because you're a combat veteran that you can make stupid, idiotic, moronic and despicable remarks. It's because you live in America and your stupid, idiotic, moronic and despicable remarks are protected by our Bill of Rights.
Idiot. Moron.
I'm glad that this article was posted. It's always a mystery why we are such Europe-bashers on this site. We are, for the most part, their descendants and much of what we are comes from them. It's good, for a change, to see something positive about Europe, especially the French.
If Eropeans aren't are allies/friends, who is?
Probably just a bit harsh. He's said he was just being provocative.
While working in Kuwait I met several French soldiers and was impressed by their professionalism, appearance and military demeanor. There is no way anyone can convince me those men are cowards. There are other countries that don´t support the US in Iraq but send troops to Afghanistan.
I am too.
Our media NEVER tell us any news which MIGHT give us a favorable opinion of what THEY dislike, so they simply DON'T tell us. Our media HATE the military (well not FOX) and the administration that sent it, so we "fools" who like the administration and support our troops will never, ever get much good out of the enemaenemy media.
Sleazywood and the media are LOCKSTEP in their dislike and disrespect of the very ones who insure our freedoms and occasionally they give lip service, but it is really only lip service.
We NATURALLY assume that we (America) are on our own. Common sense must tell us that we aren't. But....we only read what we get. Sad.
Our media can very well SEE who is over in Afghanistan. There are Germans, French, Swedes and a bunch of other EUROPEAN nations. But our media don't report it. THAT is the mystery....well, not really.
Wouldn't it be nice to actually see T.V. coverage of ALL the foreign troops over there? To see the young foreign men soldiers who are there with ours? We might even find out WHY. If they ARE there, and they ARE, then they are OBVIOUSLY with us -- in spite of the media's stories to the contrary.
You attitude towards the French reflects this site....it really does. When I opened up the thread and read your first post, I EXPECTED the rest of the thread to be the same....and was very pleased that our freepers recognized the bravery of this dead French officer.
There was an article in the New York Times about the German Parliament discussing the help that the German secret service has been giving the U.S. in the war on terrorism. It was quite helpful to us.
I ALMOST posted it but just couldn't FACE the German bashing. My back hurts this week and I am just not up to the acrimony of the German-haters/bashers.
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