{"id":195688,"date":"2008-06-21T06:11:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-21T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2008\/06\/21\/sarko-runs-into-buzz-saw-over-defense-white-paper\/"},"modified":"2008-06-21T06:11:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-21T11:11:00","slug":"sarko-runs-into-buzz-saw-over-defense-white-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2008\/06\/21\/sarko-runs-into-buzz-saw-over-defense-white-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarko Runs into Buzz Saw Over Defense White Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nicolai Sarkosy has <a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english\/2008-06\/18\/content_8395182.htm\">proposed a massive restructuring of the French military<\/a>.  He would cut about 1\/5 of the military&#8217;s manpower, tie the military much more tightly into a pan-European framework, close African bases, and <a href=\"http:\/\/afp.google.com\/article\/ALeqM5grgpxZTdI0cuqgyW9IGHWfW5_ZNQ\">rejoin the NATO integrated military command<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This is a <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">very<\/span> big deal, and I think that I agree, at least partially, with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/2008\/jun\/18\/france.nato\">Robert Fox&#8217;s analysis<\/a>, that a large part of this is about creating a more European framework, which would reduce US influence.  (See also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesonline.co.uk\/tol\/news\/world\/europe\/article4160462.ece\">here<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>This will, however, create a firestorm.  The independence of the French military command from the US has been a centerpiece of the center-right Gaullists in France, the center-left Socialists always being more friendly to the US, so he is moving against his base, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/0\/8f77c814-3e63-11dd-b16d-0000779fd2ac.html\">generals are flipping out<\/a>, having published an anonymous essay in <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Le Figaro<\/span> under the pseudonym of Surcourf, &#8220;attacked the new defence policy as amateurish, incoherent and full of gimmicks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Alain Jupp\u00e9 objected strenuously too, noting that, &#8220;Gaullism is not dead, at least in the minds of some people.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nicolai Sarkosy has proposed a massive restructuring of the French military. He would cut about 1\/5 of the military&#8217;s manpower, tie the military much more tightly into a pan-European framework, close African bases, and rejoin the NATO integrated military command. This is a very big deal, and I think that I agree, at least partially, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[984,1006],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}