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troung · 01-18-2007, 20:52 PM

http://www.brookings.edu/fp/cusf/analysis/shapiro.pdf

THE ROLE OF FRANCE IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM
Jeremy Shapiro, Associate Director, Center on the United States and France
and Research Associate, Foreign Policy Studies, Brookings Institution

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Intelligence sharing with the U.S. has also increased dramatically, with nearly daily contact between U.S and French law enforcement officials. Having experienced their own wave of Islamic terrorism in the mid-1990’s, the French intelligence services have maintained a steady eye on reputedly radical mosques within the large French Muslim community. They have also been working hard to understand and even infiltrate the vast “Arab-Afghan network” of mujihadeen that that has many connections within France.4 In Afghanistan, French officers were already on the ground before September 11 with Northern Alliance forces. U.S. forces used the contacts established by French intelligence there to create a partnership with the Northern Alliance that proved critical for overthrowing the Taliban government.5

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From a military standpoint, France responded to early U.S. requests for help and by mid-December had deployed nearly 5,000 military personnel to Central Asia, approximately the same number as the United Kingdom.6 French forces have been present at nearly all phases of the operation of Afghanistan, contributing almost a quarter of the French Navy. This contribution includes a naval task force led by the aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle that has been patrolling since December. (See Table 1) Planes from the Charles De Gaulle have flown more than 10% of coalition reconnaissance and air defense missions since the carrier arrived.7 During Operation Anaconda in early March, French Mirage jets based in Kyrgyzstan and Super Etendard fighter-bombers from the Charles De Gaulle struck 31 targets, becoming the only non-U.S. jets to have conducted strike operations in Afghanistan.
On the ground, French troops established allied control over the airport at Mazar-i-Sharif, over 500 French soldiers patrol with the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), and, although the French government does not talk about them or their activities, French special forces have been present and presumably active in Afghanistan for much of the campaign. France has also approved an EU pledge of $495 million and separately pledged $54 million toward reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. Outside of Central Asia, France has relieved scarce U.S. reconnaissance assets in Kosovo and Bosnia, allowing them to participate in operations in Afghanistan.
Rather than from a lack of military or diplomatic cooperation, the problems in the coalition result from disagreements over the best strategies for defeating terrorism and for employing coalition assets. The French government has expressed frustration with what they see as of a lack of consultation and attention to international norms. Thus, for example, French officers reportedly refused certain targets assigned to French strike aircraft by U.S. planners because, in the French view, they presented too great a risk to the civilian population.8

More importantly, the French feel that the lack of consultation has allowed the U.S. to rely excessively on military instruments in the wider war against terrorism to the detriment of diplomatic and economic tools that might address the social and economic grievances that they feel lie at the root of terrorism. From the French perspective, the predictable result of this ham-handed approach has been an increase in hatred for the U.S. and the West throughout the Muslim world and an increased danger of further terrorist attacks. The French press often echoes this criticism and has been particularly scornful of U.S. policies with regard to Iraq and Iran, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to the detainees held by U.S. authorities. Both the French government and French public opinion seem particularly incensed that some detainees, including French citizens, may face the death penalty.9 Indeed, when U.S. prosecutors decided to seek the death penalty in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged 20 th hijacker, French Justice Minister Marylise Lebranchu announced that France would no longer provide assistance to U.S authorities if they judged that that assistance might be used in seeking the death penalty for Moussaoui.10