Will the ‘La Marseillaise” be sung in Afghanistan?

Author: Rosa Maria Young

Just because Sarkozy announced at the NATO summit last week that French troops would be sent to Afghanistan does not mean that it is necessarily going to happen. There is a big resistance to it in France, among the people and among the different political parties. As could be expected, the socialist party specially are unanimously opposed to a political alignment with the United States. They put forward the bogging down of the Afghan conflict with it’s human costs and denounce what they call “the Atlantic turning” of the French politics.

Among the intellectuals, the idea has also not been well accepted. According to the well known French historian Emmanuel Todd the reinforcement of the French troops in Afghanistan is a grave diplomatic error and would show the outline of an extreme right ideology at a global scale.
This is obviously the opinion from somebody from the left though if one talks with the French people in the streets many of them are convinced Sarkozy has an obsession with the USA and he is going to do his best to agree with the Americans. Having been “burned” by Bush and his foreign policy the French will not give Sarkozy the “carte blanche” and it is not so sure that ‘La Marseillaise’ will be sung in Afghanistan!