The war in Afghanistan has become an issue in the French political debate during the run-up to the 2012 presidential elections.
France has not carried too heavy a burden in comparison with the US and Great Britain and its soldiers were not stationed in areas where the fighting was thickest. Since France's engagement began in 2001 70 French soldiers have been killed. However 10% of that total came last week.
Segolene Royal the Socialist candidate in the 2007 elections who is attempting to capture the Socialist primary but is trailing claimed that had she been president France would've not been in Afghanistan. French President Nicolas Sarkozy she claimed had also pledged that France would not go into Afghanistan but he gave in to the pressures of George Bush.
Fortunately Barack Obama was withdrawing the American forces and therefore France was following suit but there was no need to wait for the American decision.
In the military ceremony in honor of the seven French soldiers president Sarkozy lashed back at Royal and those calling for a more accelerated withdrawal. Addressing the coffins draped in the tricolor Sarkozy said:
"You have not died for nothing for you have sacrificed for a great cause… You have fought in a just war against a tyranny that imprisons an entire people, that oppresses women that would keep children in ignorance and that has transformed an entire country into a rear base of terrorism and obscurantism."