Frogs to the Fight!

Sounds like the rumors of French forces bolstering NATO lines in Afghanistan were true:

France may send hundreds of ground troops to east Afghanistan where NATO-led forces are fighting al Qaeda-backed insurgents, Le Monde newspaper reported on Tuesday.

It said the move would be part of a new Afghan policy being worked out by President Nicolas Sarkozy and his advisers.

France has about 1,900 soldiers under NATO's Afghan command, most of them based in relatively calm Kabul, and Le Monde said the fresh troops would be deployed outside the capital.

Interesting. Back during the de Gaulle years, France caused an enormous shakeup in NATO by largely removing itself from the alliance. Forty-five years later, the Fifth Republic is on the verge of saving it. In any case, this quote almost had me spitting out my coffee:

"Their destination would be zones of potentially fierce fighting, preferably the eastern region of Afghanistan close to the tribal areas of Pakistan," it said.

I take back almost all of the nasty things I said about France. Almost.