Posted on 11/06/2004 6:35:52 PM PST by conservativecorner
PARIS (Reuters) - France has ordered more troops to Ivory Coast to protect French citizens after nine French soldiers and a U.S. aid worker were killed in a government bombing raid and Ivory Coast troops fired on French forces. French President Jacques Chirac ordered the Ivory Coast planes involved in the Saturday airstrike destroyed and a defense source said French forces would also destroy five Ivorian military helicopters, leaving the country with only one helicopter.
Mobs of machete-wielding pro-government supporters rampaged through Abidjan, furious at the French destruction of the planes. Plumes of smoke rose from the plush Cocody suburb.
The French embassy said a French school in Cocody had been set ablaze, four French policemen were evacuated from a building by helicopter before it too was burned down and that there was a loud explosion near the embassy.
The escalating tension between the East African country and its former colonial ruler followed three days of a government air offensive to retake the rebel-held north of the country.
French troops, in the Ivory Coast alongside U.N. soldiers as part of a 10,000-strong contingent to keep rebels and government forces from fighting, came under fire on Saturday, military officials said.
Two additional companies of troops were being sent to the Ivory Coast to protect French nationals there, Chirac's office said. The defense ministry source said the two companies comprised a total of 300 soldiers.
A French military spokesman in Abidjan said Paris was also sending three Mirage fighter planes and one supply aircraft to the West African country of Gabon as reinforcements.
Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told a news conference late on Saturday France was holding Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo "personally responsible" for maintaining public order in Abidjan.
Asked whether the bomb attack that killed the nine French soldiers, close to the rebel-held city of Bouake, was deliberate or committed in error, the French army's communications advisor Gerard Dubois told Reuters that that was a question only Ivorian officials could answer.
"For now, error or no error, that's up to the Ivorian government to say," he said.
"The President of the Republic has ordered the immediate destruction of the Ivorian military aircraft used in recent days in violation of the cease-fire," the office of French President Jacques Chirac said in a statement.
A defense ministry source told Reuters France was targeting five MI-24 helicopters, in addition to the Sukhois it has already eliminated. Destroying the seven aircraft would leave the Ivorian airforce with just one aircraft, the defense ministry source said.
BTTT
Sorry, but you have it backwards. It was the French who sent a division to help the Nazis in World War II. The last troops defending the FuerherBunker from the Red Army were a mixture of Swedish and French SS men.
In all, the French contributed some 100,000 to 200,000 troops to the Axis cause. (Although, come to think of it, the Germans were winning before the French started fighting on their side.)
It is good to see the French get their comeupance, at the same time my in laws live and work in Abidjon as missionaries and from the sound of their latest communication this evening they are very worried about their safety. The mobs do not distinguish between French and Americans. All white people are in danger of being confused with French citizens. The American Embassy sent out a communique for all American Nationals to lock their doors, turn out their lights and hope for the best. There is no exit. The airport is being fought over and the roads are barricaded or too dangerous to risk.
Please pray for all civilians be they African, French or American, especially my in-laws
"Fetche Lavache...!"
More cooks to the ivory coast,how many cooks dose the french army need?
Well, this is a fine opportunity for France and the U.N. to show their ability to function as "Leaders" for world order...
Perhaps if Chiraq gets his ass kicked sufficiently by the Christian government - we won't have to go in to support the duly elected govenment under Christian leadership, against the Muslim rebels from the North attacking them...
France can NOT be relied upon to do the right thing, or to succeed at ANYTHING...
Hell, I can get behind any government attempting to rid themselves of French influence or control....
Semper Fi
Is there a French word equivalent to shadenfreud?
Semper Fi
Well, at least the French peacekeepers aren't running a prostitution ring or something.
Why dont they call Koffi Annan for some U.N. help? Bwa hahahahah. Maybe they can ask Bush for help. Hehehehheeee
Where will they deploy the other two thirds of their air power ?
I have the answer. Send Jesse Jackson over ther to get this all settled. Yeah, that's it. Hehheeeheehee
Wait!!! I forgot that Jimmah Carter is good at taking care of these things. HoHoHohhhoooooooo
The Fall of France
By Dr Gary Sheffield
The collapse of France, just six weeks after Hitler's initial assault, ripped up the balance of power in Europe. Dr Gary Sheffield considers the dramatic and unexpected defeat of the Allied forces in France.
Early tactics
Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, leading Winston Churchill to remark, shortly afterwards, 'Thank God for the French Army'. To Churchill at that time, France's army seemed a powerful bulwark against possible Nazi aggression towards other European nations.
The defeat of this powerful army in a mere six weeks in 1940 stands as one of the most remarkable military campaigns in history.
'...the British and French planned to fight an updated version of what happened in 1914-18...' In 1939, as World War Two loomed, the British and French planned to fight an updated version of what happened in 1914-18 during World War One, but with some essential differences. The French had suffered massive casualties in frontal attacks in 1914. This time they were going to remain on the defensive in western Europe, while mobilising their military forces and industrial base to fight a total war. They planned to take the offensive some two to three years after the start of hostilities.
The 'Maginot Line' replaced the crude trenches in which so much of the 1914-18 war was fought. It consisted of a sophisticated series of fortifications, which were confidently expected to protect France's frontier with Germany, although crucially the line did not cover the Franco-Belgian frontier. In general, the slow-tempo, attritional fighting of World War One heavily influenced French military doctrine at the outbreak of World War Two.
Find the rest at BBC.
ping
The French are going to screw up the handling of this BIG TIME
They have a history
Fried frogs legs for dinner, anyone?
Do they have a big enough, deep enough amphitheater in town for the Frog's Army to get itself surrounded in, or do they actually have to find a mountain valley to march to get Dien Ben Fued?
not sure what the issues are but in spite of this i still hope the b-hole french jerks get routed anyway.
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