22 September 2008 - 18H56
Afghanistan: a just war?
Despite stiff opposition from the Socialist opposition and a hostile public opinion, the French Parliament has voted to maintain its troops in Afghanistan, a month after ten soldiers were killed in a deadly Taliban ambush. (Part 1 of 2)
Click here to view Part 2 of our Debate.
The French Parliament voted for the first time on whether to approve government policy on Afghanistan - and gave it a green light. But not before uncomfortable questions were asked again about the circumstances in which ten French soldiers were killed in an ambush last month.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon's answer is that France needs more not less troops. He backed that up with a promise to dispatch helicopters, drones, mortars and an extra one hundred men to Afghanistan. But that's not a view shared by French public opinion, which, according to a poll in L'Express magazine last week, is strongly opposed to keeping French troops in Afghanistan.
Robert Parsons' guests are Jacques MYARD, a deputy from France's ruling UMP party and a member of the National Assembly's International Affairs Commission; Paul VALLET, an Assistant Professor at Sciences Po and the American Graduate School of International Relations and Diplomacy here in Paris; the former CIA Paris Bureau Chief Charles Cogan; and Lucas MENGET, a Senior reporter at France 24.
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