Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

French Decision Raises Concerns

There are real concerns over the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan as there is no guarantee the Afghan security forces can stand against the insurgents on their own after 2014. The concerns have raised further as France has, all at once, decided to withdraw all its combat troops in 2013 – a year before all the NATO countries had committed to pull out their forces.

After meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday that France had decided to transfer security in the eastern Kapisa province, where most of the 3,600-strong French contingent is based and the scene of the shooting, to Afghan forces from March of this year. "The pursuit of the transition and this gradual transfer of combat responsibilities will allow us to plan for a return of all our combat forces by the end of 2013," Sarkozy said, adding that 1,000 troops would return in 2012.

The decision has been made after four French troops were killed and more than a dozen injured this month when an apparently rogue member of the Afghan army opened fire on them, igniting outrage in France as a presidential election nears. Kapisa province, where French troop are currently deployed, is in the list of insecure provinces of Afghanistan and according to military expert the Afghan national army and police are not ready to take over the security responsibility of the province. Therefore, fears exist on the growth of insurgency in that province.

Previously, there had been reports of miscommunication among the US led NATO allies in Afghanistan. The beneficiary of this pitfall has been the Taliban. The decision of France to pull out its forces a year before than its commitment questions the integrity of NATO member countries over Afghan war.

It seems like every country trying to find ways of quickly withdrawing their forces from Afghanistan.Taliban-linked Afghan soldiers have been targeting their foreign counterparts and mentors in the last four years or so. But this is the first time a NATO member takes it serious up to an extent that it announces to withdraw all its forces from Afghanistan. If other US allies to the same, it would definitely affect the moral of Afghan security forces. Such steps give a message to the Taliban that Western countries are exhausted and their resistance has been broken.