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[Ivory Coast] the french swings into action

I'm expecting some morons to start posting here that the French are colonial oppressors and want to eradicate the local population

It's not clear who in the end arrested Gbagbo, there are reports in the French media that French special forces stormed the bunker where he was hiding. French and UN forces control now the majority of strategic point in Abijan, I hope the new elected president brings back peace in the country

edit: and also a lot of surrender jokes and white flag references
 
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Did The French get approval from The U.N. / African Union approval to directly intervene like this? I know that U.N. "Peace Keepers" are there, but this looks like an independent French operation.
 
Schadenfroh said:
Did The French get approval from The U.N. / African Union approval to directly intervene like this? I know that U.N. "Peace Keepers" are there, but this looks like an independent French operation.
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Probably got permission from the elected and legal government of the Ivory Coast.
 
Schadenfroh said:
Did The French get approval from The U.N. / African Union approval to directly intervene like this? I know that U.N. "Peace Keepers" are there, but this looks like an independent French operation.
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the elected president asked for french intervention
french actions are because of the UN resolution

all other independant French actions are on request of other nations primarly protecting foreign diplomats and citizens
French forces protected Israeli and Japanese diplomats when their embassies were attacked. Hundreds of foreign people and diplomats are protected in 3 secure French locations. You don't read this in the media but the French are doing a great job in this whole clusterf**ck

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diploma...e-israeli-diplomats-from-ivory-coast-1.354681
 
Go France! Looks like an excellent example of the free world protecting itself, Ivory Coast being a representative democratic republic held hostage by a would-be dictator. Color me impressed and pleasantly surprised.

On the other hand, this does invalidate roughly half the jokes on the Internet . . .
 
I don't understand this chronic hatred towards France. They have thousands of troops in Afghanistan and have taken heavy casulaties in combat missions in some of the most dangerous regions of the country. They are involved in Ivory Coast and in Libya. A lot of you guys are crying all the time that the US has to do all the world police thing all the time and when another country steps up and gets involved, you start whining again!!!! Under Sarko, France is probably one of the most loyal allies the US has

and he has a hot wife which also earns him some kudos 🙂
 
Well, is it comforting to note that when nations have disputes that the world's leading nations step in and settle it themselves? Imagine someone stepping in next time WE have a dispute.
 
There wouldn't be a United States of America without the French military intervention. Just something to think about.
 
Red Dawn said:
I don't see your type storming any armed bunker.
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I'm not storming anything more dangerous than a ham sandwich, thank you very much.

freegeeks said:
I don't understand this chronic hatred towards France. They have thousands of troops in Afghanistan and have taken heavy casulaties in combat missions in some of the most dangerous regions of the country. They are involved in Ivory Coast and in Libya. A lot of you guys are crying all the time that the US has to do all the world police thing all the time and when another country steps up and gets involved, you start whining again!!!! Under Sarko, France is probably one of the most loyal allies the US has

and he has a hot wife which also earns him some kudos 🙂
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Personally I have nothing against France now that they have stopped making opposition to America part of their national policy. I'm glad to see them step up, and I also applaud Obama for helping them in areas where they may not have capability, like stealth or stand-off precision strikes or large operation C3.
 
StinkyPinky said:
Because they dared to not blindly do what the US asked them to do in 2003. How dare they have an opinion.
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Well, yeh, of course. "With Us Or Against Us"- remember? And "Freedom Fries", too, one of the most inane rightwing phrases ever.

France wanted no part in the Invasion of Iraq because it was a quagmire waiting for some damned fool arrogant Neocons to jump into the middle of it.

France- "What you want to do really isn't justified and may entail a lot of unintended consequences, old friend."

Neocons- "Fuck you cheese eating surrender monkeys! USA! USA! USA!"

Now that it hasn't worked out as planned, it's important to maintain the ridicule as a way of saving face among the birther/ fundie/ tea party denialist base of the repub party. They gotta hate somebody if they're going to be easy to manipulate and there's no percentage in trying to switch targets...
 
freegeeks said:
I don't understand this chronic hatred towards France. They have thousands of troops in Afghanistan and have taken heavy casulaties in combat missions in some of the most dangerous regions of the country. They are involved in Ivory Coast and in Libya. A lot of you guys are crying all the time that the US has to do all the world police thing all the time and when another country steps up and gets involved, you start whining again!!!! Under Sarko, France is probably one of the most loyal allies the US has

and he has a hot wife which also earns him some kudos 🙂
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I didn't see too much whining about it - but I think the bolded is a big part. The friction between the two contries (IMO) started under de Gaulle and have periodically risen and fallen

But the relationship currently seems to be on the mend esp since Sarkozy got elected

StinkyPinky said:
Because they dared to not blindly do what the US asked them to do in 2003. How dare they have an opinion.
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Yes, because that is the only possible reason 🙄
 
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Exterous said:
I didn't see too much whining about it - but I think the bolded is a big part. The friction between the two contries (IMO) started under de Gaulle and have periodically risen and fallen

But the relationship currently seems to be on the mend esp since Sarkozy got elected

Yes, because that is the only possible reason 🙄
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Well said. The French before Sarkozy seemed to base their entire foreign policy on opposing America since World War II. Sarkozy has ended that, although he is not going to follow us so closely as does the UK.

That's one reason I support Obama on Libya; even though there are no significant American interests there, one has to be an ally to deserve allies. Sarkozy took the lead with Bush in mending the relationship, good to see Obama following up on that.
 
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