Stardate 20020310.0730

(On Screen): Operation Anaconda is winding down; the Army is pulling men back for a rest. They've done a good job; they've been fighting in beastly conditions and have won. Indeed, they're fighting in the worst conditions that Afghanistan has to offer, conditions which before the war it was received wisdom to think were impossible for Western troops to operate in.

One of the reasons that the operation went as well as it did, and friendly casualties were as low as they were, was because of heavy and well coordinated support by air. Some of that was provided by the French, though apparently not as much as had been expected. The BBC reports:

In a separate development, a French newspaper says France has refused to allow its warplanes to attack some of the targets assigned to it by American commanders in eastern Afghanistan.

The newspaper, Le Monde, quotes unnamed French military officials, as saying that the French and Americans had a difference of opinion over some bombing missions because of the risk to the civilian population.

So you've got men on the ground and they're taking mortar fire from al Qaeda troops. They get on the radio and ask for an airstrike. And the order goes out to the French, and the French refuse. Sorry, no, we won't bomb there. Give us a different target.

I read this and went cold. I even felt a bit of hatred. If Europeans want to know why we've come to not trust them, this is it: with American soldiers on the ground in danger, they couldn't rely on their "friends" to remove the danger from air. It doesn't matter why; the French were given an order and refused to follow it. The last thing that commanders in a situation like that need is to try to figure out whether a given unit will accept the orders it's given. In the time it took for orders to go to the French and the French to refuse them, and then the orders to go to an American air resource, men on the ground could have died.

American men could have died. Apparently Paris doesn't care about that.

Actually, I'm willing to bet that no such critical bombing mission was ever assigned to the French, because I'm willing to bet that the American commanders knew that this would happen and didn't want to take any chances. But that is cold comfort; it shouldn't be like that. You do not debate tactics and strategy in the heat of battle. Once the shooting starts, you fight.

The French have declared that they won't support us in Iraq. It's just as well. I don't think I'd want French troops on our flank or French jets in the air over our men.

And the next time someone in France asks, "Why won't you trust us?" I'll assume that it's a rhetorical question.