French army chief rules out military victory in Afghanistan

by Staff Writers Paris (AFP) Oct 8, 2008 The head of the French military General Jean-Louis Georgelin on Wednesday backed comments by a senior British military officer's view that the war in Afghanistan was unwinnable. A British officer "was saying that one cannot win this war militarily, that there is no military solution to the Afghan crisis and I totally share this feeling," Georglin told French television channel Public Senat. "The strategy of NATO, as it has been redefined in Bucharest (at the start of April) does not say anything else," he said. Georgelin's remarks just a few days after comments by British Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith. Carleton-Smith, the country's top military officer in Afghanistan, told the Sunday Times that people should "lower their expectations" about how the conflict there would end. "We're not... [read full story]