THIS PAST weekend witnessed the 225th anniversary of the Battle of Yorktown, in which a combined Franco-American army and a French fleet in the Chesapeake Bay forced the surrender of 7,000 British troops at Yorktown and effectively ended the American Revolution. The opening celebrations last Thursday featured parades from the American military and the French Navy and drew in visitors from Virginia senators John Warner and George Allen to French defense minister Michele Alliot-Marie. It was a good moment for France and the United States to remind themselves why they are allies in the first place, especially since in modern times they seem to have forgotten.
The "Spirit of Yorktown" has faltered in recent years, with French opposition to the war in Iraq sparking ill-conceived boycotts and animosity between the French and Americans. Despite occasionally vicious accusations from this side of the pond, however, France has been a useful and reliable ally that has often cooperated with larger American military strategy. U.S. perceptions of French obstructionism were mostly inspired by the diplomatic tussle over Iraq, but a deeper look reveals heavy French involvement during the new century in support of American efforts against terrorism and several other problems, despite recurring media assertions to the contrary.
The day after the Sept. 11 attacks, Le Monde, the most recognized and influential French newspaper, opened with a headline that resonated in many places across the globe: "We are all Americans." NATO invoked Article V, which states that an attack upon one member is an attack on all others, for the first time in its history, and the French Navy was steaming towards Afghanistan. Task Force 473, the designation for the French naval forces, comprised an entire carrier battle group led by the only non-American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world, the Charles de Gaulle. On the sixth month anniversary of Sept. 11, President Bush was grateful to "Our good ally, France," for "[deploying] nearly one-fourth of [her] navy to support Operation Enduring Freedom." According to the French Embassy, from Oct. 2001 to Sept. 2002, French aircraft destroyed 33 enemy targets over Afghanistan. Additionally, "France was the only country, to have flown bombing missions over Afghanistan in direct support of American ground troops."
Nine hundred French troops are currently guarding the capital, Kabul, and 200 French special forces are operating in conjunction with American troops in hunting down terrorists and insurgents. In the past five years, the French have periodically sent many carrier battle groups for operations over Afghanistan and maintain several major surface combatants around the Indian Ocean to stop dangerous shipments.
France is also active in other places besides Afghanistan. It has over 7,000 troops deployed in the Caribbean that conduct anti-drug trafficking operations. In 2002, French soldiers rescued American children, who were chanting "Vive la France," trapped in the beleaguered Ivory Coast. Franco-American cooperation over Lebanon was an integral aspect to the expulsion of the Syrians in 2005 and to the U.N. resolution that ended the conflict between Israel and Lebanon in 2006. In August, France pledged 2,000 soldiers for Lebanon; the French will also be leading the multinational force in Lebanon until early 2007.
As a nation that is the third largest arms exporter in the world, one of the highest military spenders and has 36,000 troops deployed abroad, France is a significant power that the United States would do well not to ignore, or belittle, as happened in 2003. According to an Oct. 20 Washington Times article, Alliot-Marie explained in her speech on Thursday that France and America have "to talk to one another quite candidly" with "no attempt to dominate." She also stated that friendship between France and America should not involve "blind submission."
After the ruckus over Iraq, the transatlantic relationship has stabilized. A Pew poll in June 2006 showed that 52 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of France, up from 29 percent in 2003 following the invasion of Iraq. In these trying times, America needs as many friends as it can get, and France has been the oldest. From Yorktown in 1781 to Afghanistan in 2006, French and American troops have often fought together throughout their shared history. The only things that have changed are their enemies.
Erald Kolasi's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at ekolasi@cavalierdaily.com.
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