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PARIS-President Nicolas Sarkozy forcefully defended his intention to return France to the heart of NATO's military command after 43 years away and insisted Wednesday that staying outside the alliance's highest echelons any longer would weaken France.Sarkozy said he would write to other NATO members to announce his decision after a debate next week in the French parliament. The French leader's drive to end the rift with the United States over its participation in NATO has aroused old and fierce passions among both leftist and some conservative lawmakers fearful that a closer relationship with the American-led alliance could limit France's cherished ability to act independently on the world stage.In a speech Wednesday, however, an animated and at times defiant Sarkozy insisted that France's "independence will not be in question"-a clear message to critics at home-and said France will maintain control over its nuclear arsenal.In 1966, President Charles de Gaulle abruptly pulled France out of the NATO command and evicted all allied troops and bases, including its military headquarters, from France in an effort to assert sovereignty over its own territory.De Gaulle's blunt assertion of French independence at the height of the Cold War came as a shock at the time and caused a rift with Washington that deepened in 2003 when France kept its troop out of the American-led invasion of Iraq.France is a NATO member, but has remained outside the central decision-making core for four decades.
"The time has come to put an end to this situation," he said, arguing that new threats require greater international military cooperation, not less. "It is in France's interest and that of Europe. In concluding this long process, France will be stronger and more influential."Sarkozy lamented that fact that France has no major command in NATO, that it did not participate in defining top-level strategy or military objectives even though it has troops under NATO command.He firmly rejected opposition criticism that France would be forced to follow the alliance's line even on military missions it opposed."Some tell me this choice would be a betrayal of Gen. de Gaulle, an alignment with Washington...and that after all, if we had been in the military command, we would have been forced to take part in the war against Iraq in 2003. Lie! Lie!"Sarkozy has long promised the step and is expected to formalize it with a letter to NATO's leadership before a summit April 3-4 in Strasbourg to celebrate the alliance's 60th anniversary.While Sarkozy does not need parliamentary approval for the move, his government will face a no-confidence vote in parliament next week on the subject after a parliamentary debate...
By Deborah Seward
To read more go to:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090311/ap_on_re_eu/eu_france_nato;_ylt=Ai99cSLeD.iM3BFHXJG0ZA1w24cA
As in the days of Noah..
