http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...330259,00.html


Full article (its pretty long) at site.

France about-turns into a bigger military mess

Michael Portillo
‘Il faut aller à Gorazde.” (“We must push through to Gorazde.”) The French defence minister would repeat it like a chant. It was 1995. In Srebrenica, a United Nations so-called safe haven in Bosnia, 8,000 men had been slaughtered by Bosnian Serbs. Gorazde was another enclave that the UN had promised to defend. But the French and British forces in the region were many miles away. As participants in a UN humanitarian mission they were lightly armed. They had lorries, not tanks, and no aircraft. So the idea of pushing through to Gorazde was fanciful.


It had been a French general, Philippe Morillon, who as head of the UN forces in the former Yugoslavia had first pledged to protect Srebrenica. He did not have the resources to keep that promise and Dutch UN forces in the city did nothing to prevent the massacre. We (the other Nato defence ministers) found a word to describe the French habit of making impressive statements with no means to put them into effect. We called it “grandstanding”. That gallic custom has been on display again over Lebanon. After the French had taken a vociferous lead in drafting the UN security council resolution that brought about the ceasefire, it was shocking to discover that France was offering just 200 soldiers towards a UN force of 15,000. Late last week, after wasting valuable time since hostilities ended nearly two weeks ago, President Chirac gave way. Having attracted the world’s scorn he raised his country’s offer to 2,000.
There is a cultural difference between the French and the British obvious in their diplomatic styles. The French believe that what they say is at least as important as what they do. They spin grandiloquent phrases and strike postures. Rhetoric is away of life and if you point out it is divorced from all strategic reality that is thought to be nitpicking.

The British, on the other hand, get engrossed in tedious detail like: “Is this practical? Who is going to supply the troops? What will be their rules of engagement?” With Lebanon the French have discovered phrase-making is not enough. In recent days they have become very practical, bleating that there are no established rules of engagement (governing what the soldiers can do and when they can fire) almost as though they were British.
If any country could have settled such important details in advance it is France. It took the kudos for working up the UN resolution. It acted as spokesman for the Arab world within the permanent five members of the council. It insisted that the resolution should not be made under chapter 7 of the UN charter, which would have given the troops the right to impose their will by force.
The unclear rules of engagement derive directly from the ambiguity of the French-inspired resolution. But France has nonetheless used the uncertainty as an excuse for delay. At any time France could have eased the problem by offering to lead the UN forces and proposing rules for all participants. Then every nation would insist on its own variations. They always do. French forces are now arriving in Lebanon with the mission and the rules still unspecified. Chirac claimed he had received assurances from the UN that enabled him to increase French numbers.

Nobody (not even the French) will deny Chirac (or de Villepin) skill for Political Grandstanding, they have made it an artform.

But in the case of Lebanon I can understand his timidity for getting involved. What the French (and other Europeans) are being asked to is stand in the middle between the IDF and Hezbollah, both of which have fired on peacekeepers in the past. I can certainly think of more safer regions in the world to protect, the Korean DMZ or the Straits of Taiwan for example...

In 1983 the French took many casualties from a Hezbollah attack while they were stationed in Lebanon, one can understand why they are apprehensive of returning back to the region.

If I were the French (or any country sending troops) I would make it clear to BOTH sides, the first 'accident' that involves an attack on UN troops would invite an immediate retailitory strike without any warning.

Yeah but you're thinking that the UN actually has a pair of balls.

Originally Posted by 5.56X45mm

Yeah but you're thinking that the UN actually has a pair of balls.

And brains too, seeing how they are trying to prevent the same kind of mess from previous campaigns. So a clear set of ROE seems quite sensible to me and it sure beats the hell out of storming into somekind of dung pile and finding out how big it is once you are in it!