France may train new Iraq army

AP ^ | 2/6/04

[saquin]

FRANCE wants to help Iraq train a new army and its police forces despite initial opposition to the US-led war.

French defence minister Michele Alliot-Marie replied "yes" when asked by newspaper Le Monde whether France might offer military cooperation to the planned provisional Iraqi government to assume power by July 1.

"We could only envisage intervening at the request of such a government and in a framework of the United Nations," the defence minister was quoted as saying.

"This government should be installed starting from July 1 and thus it is from this date that we envisage our participation in the reconstruction of Iraq, together with our German partners and with the Japanese," she said.

The minister indicated that French help would be geared toward military and security training. France is already helping to train soldiers in Afghanistan for that war-torn country's new army.

"Japan wishes in effect to be associated with our projects, which are linked to the training of the police, the army," she said. "It is an area in which we have expertise since that is what we are doing already in Afghanistan."

France was a lead opponent of the US-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein. It insists that governing power in Iraq be transferred from the US coalition to a provisional government before France would consider participating in the country's reconstruction.

"We consider it indispensable that the Iraqis get back their sovereignty as rapidly as possible, which supposes that they have a legitimate government," the defence minister told Le Monde.

[cavtrooper21]

"liberated" by Stalin and living to post here means having an Angel riding on your shoulder...

[dead]

I didn't even read the article or the thread - that headline alone was soooooo priceless!

[ralph rotten]

check book and internet----
.

First, the facts. France declared war on Germany, without having been attacked or threatened with attack, in September 1939, and surrendered in June 1940. That's a long five minutes. In that five-minute period, France took 300,000 military casualties, including 120,000 killed. (No, I didn't know that, either; I just googled "French casualties 1940" and found this.) The notion that the French army just ran away from the Germans is simply false, and it seems to me shameful to slander the dead in that way.

Hey its ok lie, only if your a RAT

[PayrollOffice]

Just say NON!

Say NO to French infiltration!

[JasonC]

No, I did not make a mistake. There isn't anybody in Europe my statement doesn't apply to. Who liberated you from Stalin's successors, the tooth fairy? The kindness of Gorby's heart?

[Alter Kaker]

Who liberated you from Stalin's successors, the tooth fairy? The kindness of Gorby's heart?

I did. I got out.

[JasonC]

Got out to where? Which had freedom why? You can squirm all you want, the eventual answer will be the same. The Brits can honestly say they both led and helped, though not that they could have done it without us. Nobody else on earth, free to say what they want and live as they please, can say even that much, about where they got the privilege. Ingraditude isn't becoming. It is what leads to the putdowns directed at France. Instead of defending their present conduct for their past suffering, you might look at present suffering in places like Iraq, and past conduct of certain conspicuous others. France didn't. Which is a moral failing. And that is why they are catching heck.

[js1138]

Train them to what? Surrender?

This is good news. Syria and Iran next, followed by Saudi Arabia. They seem to have already trained Lybia.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I can just picture a French guy standing in front of Iraqi troop ranks saying, "Be brave, be loyal, be true...and keep your white flags where you can get to them quickly!"