France: Making a Difference in Afghanistan

December 15, 2009

Op-Ed, Le Monde

All eyes were on Afghanistan at the beginning of December as President Obama announced new military commitments, and NATO leaders gathered in Brussels to plan the next steps to assist the people of Afghanistan to take over increasing responsibility for their security and their country.  While the debate has focused almost exclusively on abstract numbers of troops deployed, we must remember that each soldier, each police trainer and each Euro devoted to security and reconstruction bring us a step closer to a safer, more developed and more independent Afghanistan. 

Together, we are pursuing a noble and important purpose.  We seek to rid Afghanistan of the violent terrorists who threaten that country’s existence – and ours.  We seek to do all we can to enable the government of Afghanistan to create and maintain a peaceful, stable, prosperous country where terrorists and terrorism find no shelter.  

Nowhere is this example more obvious than in the provinces of Kapisa and Surobi, where French forces have brought new levels of security to the local population over the past year and where French development assistance is sustaining agricultural, water and health projects, created in cooperation with local Afghan leaders.  A hospital for mothers and newborn children fills a critical need in Kabul thanks in large part to the generosity of the French people.  This month, over 100 additional French gendarmes have arrived in Afghanistan to train the Afghan National Police how to better secure their homes and villages.  

Our task in Afghanistan is not easy.  France, like other allies, has lost courageous French soldiers to the attacks of the insurgency.  Their sacrifice will never be forgotten.  But, together, we remain undeterred in our commitment to the Afghan people.  We will continue to meet the challenges required to make the future safer for our children.  We have learned the hard lesson – through the attacks of September 11 and the bombings of London and Madrid -- that evil can grow and reach out around the world if left unchecked.  We must not let that happen again.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen summed up the situation well when he stated that in Afghanistan, “we must do more now, to do less later.”  The purpose behind the surge in American and Allied forces is to provide the security necessary for reconstruction projects to take root and to assist the Afghan security forces to recruit and train the necessary personnel so that they can assume greater responsibility for their country in the coming months.  Much more remains to be done.  We gladly welcome any new French contributions to this effort as France can, and does, bring significant capabilities, experience and expertise to fill a critical need on the ground in Afghanistan.  We look forward to working with our Afghan and Allied partners in preparing for the London conference in January, which will provide an important venue for setting achievable goals for the future together.  We are proud to stand together with France as a key ally and partner and we appreciate the solid support of President Sarkozy and other French leaders in this effort.  The struggle for our peaceful future is underway in Afghanistan, and – together – we must take up the challenge and win it.