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On the Indy comments section, one chap wrote in that because we are in recession and the EU are our “principle trading partners” plus we need additional EU “combat troops” to win in Afghanistan, that we should be nice to the EU which is a totally silly concept but he did end with a good quote: Voltaire on his death bed who said when asked to denounce the works of the devil ” This is no time to make enemies”.

The problem of course is that this is a NATO Operation and the support from France, Germany and many other EU countries, has been pretty poor, to say the least.

My Response

There is not a snowballs chance in Hell that France, Germany, Italy and Spain will provide any combat troops at any time for Afghanistan, there is no political will or the public support to do so, you will recall what happened after the Madrid Bombings ? (Another contributor did point out that what I meant was likely “No More” than any there currently which is correct.)

Interestingly, our best support has come from two of the smaller EU countries and NATO members, the Danes and the Dutch, both have fought alongside our troops. Because the Italians had been paying off the Taliban and neglected to tell the French who took over the sector, a French column was ambushed and 10 soldiers killed, their bodies mutilated and the pictures shown on French TV so, no chance there then.

In fact, those French troops went out on that patrol, so sure it was a quiet area that each man had only 100 rounds of ammunition and they had no heavy machine guns, they fought well but survivors were rescued by American forces operating in the next sector.

Our Biggest Trading Partner

I always love the “principle trading partner” argument, yes maybe except if 3 million jobs in the UK rely on EU membership, likely +6 million jobs on the mainland rely on UK consumers and industry. The car scrapping scheme has benefited German, French, Italian and Spanish manufacturers far more than it has the British car plants and therefore, British jobs.

Watch the up-coming scrap in Germany over Opel and realise that the German Government and Unions will see both Vauxhall plants in the UK closed before they will accept a single redundancy in Germany. As Germany has 4 plants and 20,000 workers, guess where the 10,000 redundancies are going to start to happen ?

I have never understood the “don’t upset the EU” argument as if them trading with us was a big favour on their part, it really isn’t, its all down to hard headed commercial interests. I cannot imagine the Germans saying, “That’s it, we are upset so no more VWs, Audis, Mercs or BMWs for you ungrateful British !”

Right now because of currency movements and tax increases in the UK, French wine growers are having a tough time and even selling product at very cheap prices, just to keep a foothold in the UK market because it is the most important EU market for them and they face big competition from “New World” producers. There is no sentiment in these matters, it is purely commercial with no favours contemplated.

A Silly Comment

Some rather silly woman decided to join in that the French already have “combat troops” there and so, which rather missed the point and most certainly the thread of the discussion.

But a Reply Was Required

Yes they (French) do as do the Germans and mainly classified as “combat troops” but and it is a matter of fact rather than opinion, their deployment is hedged around with this restriction or that which is why they have been used basically as “garrison troops”. In both cases and in this role, they have lost troops to suicide bombing attacks. But the point is that neither Country’s troops are constantly engaged in combat as the Americans, Canadians and British are.

Besides which, I cast no doubts upon the courage of these troops and if you read what I wrote, my specific point was that “…there is not a snowballs chance in Hell that France, Germany, Italy and Spain will provide any combat troops at any time for Afghanistan, there is no political will or the public support to do so, you will recall what happened after the Madrid Bombings ?”

In other words, deploying troops for any country relies upon broad public support to do so whether it is in the USA or the UK, it is often said that the Vietnam War was lost on the Campuses of the USA. There is no appetite in Germany or France to see their troops in harms way and a constant stream of body bags coming home unless you want to argue there is (?).

So just to explain it to you in simple terms, you can call any formation “Combat Troops” but in reality and unless directly engaged in operations, they are just troops.