Eric Chomko wrote:
wrote:
Jordan wrote:
On Feb 16, 5:53 am, Pat Flannery wrote:
What makes it so pointless is that 10 ABMs in Poland are worthless
against a North Korean attack and so would only be of any possible use
against a Iranian attack that overflew Europe on the way to the U.S..
You're right.
We _are_ stupid to defend the Europeans. We should pull those ABM's
out right away!
Seriously, though, Poland is one of the European countries that has
stood firm by us in the current crisis, and as a result _does_ deserve
our defense. It's not as if we were defending, say, _France_.
France is a staunch ally of the US. Just because they didn't want
to help you in an erroneous path in Iraq, it doesn't mean they aren't
your allies. French soldiers are currently fighting and dying in their
reply to the Taliban attack of sept 2001.
Withdrawl from NATO in 1964?
France started to withdraw from the military alliance in 1958 but
allways
remained in the political alliance.That meant that France didn't need
or
want US troops on its soil and did non want to station its own troops
on the soil of other NATO countries but it was allways an ally within
NATO and showed so for example during the Cuban crisis. France
rejoined NATO's military command in 1993. Anyways, not all US allies
are members of NATO.
The French fight against terrorism is for
France not the US. We have a common enemy in the fight against
terrorism but that doesn't necessarily make us allies.
If France had only it self interest in mind, it would be much better
off
not fighting in Afghanistan. They would attract less terrorist action
on
their soil by simply letting others fight Al Qaeda. It's not as if
there was
any doubt about who had the most fire-power, Al Qaeda or those
fighting
Al Qaeda. France being in there doesn't change the outcome of the
fight.
They are not there just for France, they are there because one of
their
allies has been attacked.
Iran is also fighting Al Qaeda. We can easily see major differences
between the relationships between France, the US and Iran in the
fight against Al Qaeda. Could you imagine Iran putting its soldiers
under
US command or the US putting its soldiers under Iranian command.
Of course not. France has some of its soldiers in Afghanistan under
NATO command and the rest of its soldiers directly under US
command. France would not put its soldiers under the command of
a country it didn't consider as being a loyal ally.
Alain Fournier