It’s amazing that the French have decided they can’t keep several battalions’ worth of troops in Africa. Just decades ago, this was the France on which the sun never set.
withdraw them.
Frees up money for public-sector union pensions....
“It’s amazing that the French have decided they can’t keep several battalions’ worth of troops in Africa.”
Does the word Vietnam mean anything?
The Colonial Pact was much more than an agreement to station soldiers across Africa. It bound the economies of Africa to the control of France. It made the CFA franc the national currency in both former colonial regions of Africa and created a continuing, and enforceable, dependency on France.
France took possession of their foreign currency reserves;
· controlled the strategic raw materials of the country;
· stationed troops in the country with the right of free passage;
· demanded that all military equipment be acquired from France;
· took over the training of the police and army;
· required that French businesses be allowed to maintain monopoly enterprises in key areas (water, electricity, ports, transport, energy, etc.).
· required that in the award of government contracts in the African countries, French companies should be considered first; only after that could Africans look elsewhere.
The African states must make a contribution to France each year for the infrastructure created by the French colonial system and left behind when independence was granted.
· France not only set limits on the imports of a range of items from outside the franc zone but also sets minimum quantities of imports from France. These treaties are still in force and operational. Including ones we are involved with and have for many years. I hope Trump pulls us out as we are not actually fighting people, we are logistics. The French can do their own.
rwood