[Spliffdaddy]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa....ap/index.html

[Logic]

For the ignorant.

http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unoci/

[Spliffdaddy]

That's kinda harsh, dude.

I'm sure there are a few people who support the UN, but are not otherwise ignorant.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Logic:
For the ignorant.

http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unoci/

So it's OK when the UN accidentally hits a few civilians in its bombing runs, but not when anyone else does?

[Spliffdaddy]

When French soldiers kill civilians it's an accident.

Had the soldiers on a UN mission been American - OMG, how brutal.



Ya know, I don't see any Ivory Coast locals dancing in the streets, welcoming their French liberators.

tsk tsk

And the French are always so quick to give the US advice on how to achieve success in matters such as this.

[y0y0]

Originally posted by Millennium:
So it's OK when the UN accidentally hits a few civilians in its bombing runs, but not when anyone else does?

Uhm ,what UN bombing runs? The Ivory Coast Airforce was the one that did the bombing runs, not the UN or the French?

I don't know all that much about the whats and whys of France's foreign policy, but I really wonder why so many here take such malicious pleasure in taking pot shots at anything and everything French. It's kind of sad, because you lower yourselves to the same level as those who constantly take pot shots at the US.

Pathetic, really.

[swrate]

more troops were sent lately after the murder of Republicans.
spliff.
another complex story

[Millennium]

Originally posted by y0y0:
Uhm ,what UN bombing runs? The Ivory Coast Airforce was the one that did the bombing runs, not the UN or the French?

The runs were still done with the UN's approval. Does this make the accidental civilian deaths OK?

I don't know all that much about the whats and whys of France's foreign policy, but I really wonder why so many here take such malicious pleasure in taking pot shots at anything and everything French. It's kind of sad, because you lower yourselves to the same level as those who constantly take pot shots at the US.

It was never my intent to take pot shots at the French. My pot shots are reserved for the UN itself, a body which has taken quite a lot of credit for world peace while having actually achieved little to nothing itself. Its sole significant accomplishment may well have been the creation of Israel, and we all know what good that did for world peace. As far as that goes, the Olympics do much more than the UN ever did. I suppose that's not quite fair, given that the modern Olympics had a 50-year head start, but with so much less they've done so much more.

[Troll]

Originally posted by Millennium:
The runs were still done with the UN's approval. Does this make the accidental civilian deaths OK?.

What bombing runs??? The French don't even have any bombers in the area?

[Troll]

http://www.lci.fr/news/monde/0,,3184...lEIDUy,00.html

For those who can read French. France is only now sending Mirage fighter bombers to C�te d'Ivoire. The aircraft of the C�te d'Ivorian Airforce were destroyed on the ground presumably by artillery or surface to surface missiles. Civilians don't hang around airforce bases! The only interaction between the French military and civilians was in the protection of French and other nationals who were attacked by military forces. The French and UN forces evacuated certain nationals and there were exchanges of small arms fire. In those clashes I imagine it's possible that there were civilian deaths but so far none have been reported.

And even if there had been, drawing a comparison between an aggressive invasion of a sovereign nation that results in 100,000 civilian deaths and intervening in a UN sanctioned peace-keeping operation to prevent a country descending once again into civil war is simply ridiculous.

The world is rallying behind France. Thabo Mbeki arrives tomorrow as a representative of the African Union, the UN is holding a session tomorrow, Kofi Annan has condemned the murder of the 9 French Peacekeepers as has virtually every African nation.

[gatekeeper]

Reading the previous posts I get the impression that people haven't actually read the CNN article properly or that the article has been updated after it was posted:

government warplanes killed at least nine French peacekeepers and an American civilian in an airstrike

The American civilian is the only civilian death mentioned in the article.

France retaliated for the airstrike by destroying two government warplanes at an airport outside the capital

French infantry destroyed the Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets on the ground at an airport in Yamoussoukro

France deployed three Mirage fighter jets to nearby Gabon, French military spokesman Col. Henry Aussavy said. France also ordered two additional companies to Ivory Coast.

Oh well. Can't let the facts get in the way of some good old France bashing.

[Troll]

Okay, I have just spoken to an Algerian in Abidjan. He says that the jet fighters were parked at a part of the civilian airport. They were completely separate from any civilian areas. The 2 fighters that were involved in the strike were destroyed on the ground by French ground forces soon after the attack. Later, French helicopters flew to the airport and the rest of the Ivorian Airforce, another 4 planes I think, was destroyed. This guys reckons no civilians or Ivorian soldiers were injured.

Apparently on government instructions, rioting then started. Looters raided foreign homes and businesses. The French troops moved in to secure the area. Apparently there were clashes between the troops and civilians although the guy I spoke to says he hasn't heard of any casualties caused by the French. This guy said he had seen some Ivorians trying to protect foreign assets like the French bookstore and government militia stoking the violence had attacked them.

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

It's a quagmire!
The wrong war at the wrong time for the wrong reasons!
They're doing EVERYTHING wrong!
Quagmire! Quagmire!

[RAILhead]