The Evil Of The Taliban Hits Home In France

In the world of terrorism, the world of radical islamic terror, the world of simple and true evil...it is becoming evident that the Taliban hold the title of "Evil Personified." The nation of France is devastated by a photograph published in a French magazine that shows Taliban fighters showing off French weapons, uniforms and even personal effects taken off of the dead French soldiers in the Taliban massacre that occured a couple of weeks ago. These minions of Satan, stripped the bodies of the dead French soldiers, posed for the camera and of course, intended for that shot to stir the French to retreat from Afghanistan. NOTE: I will NOT post that photograph here at Holger Awakens...it is too disgusting. If you insist on viewing it, you can go to parismatch.com.

Will it work? Take a look at some from the article at the International Herald Tribune:

One Taliban fighter is clad in the bulletproof vest of a dead French soldier. Another proudly shows off a French walkie-talkie. Yet another wears a camouflaged French Army helmet.
A glossy six-page photo spread published Thursday and featuring a group of insurgents who say they killed 10 French soldiers in Afghanistan on Aug. 18 has reinforced uneasiness about France's military presence there.

But at home in France his words were drowned out by the emotional reaction of family members of the dead soldiers to the magazine report.
"It's a shock to see our children's killers parading their uniforms, their weapons," Joel Lepahun, the father of one of the soldiers told the radio station RTL.

Chantal Buil, the mother of another dead soldier, wrote a letter to Sarkozy, pleading with him to withdraw from Afghanistan.
"Stop following the example of President Bush," the letter read, according to the magazine le Nouvel Observateur. "Let's stay French. Let's get our soldiers out of the quagmire."

Now, beyond what the Taliban have done here, it is nearly as horrendous what this French magazine has done by publishing this photo. Hell, it's something the New York Times would stoop low enough to do. This French magazine spread the propaganda that the Taliban wanted - it's different if some foreign publication had run that photo but for a French magazine to do it is appalling.

And after looking at that photograph, I must make the call again. The call for the extermination of the Taliban from the Earth. I'm serious. This group is simply too evil to be allowed to exist...even one remaining Taliban is too many. Winning the War In Afghanistan is no longer sufficient. The total eradication of the Taliban is simply the only solution to eliminating this evil on Earth.

Taliban bring the war home to France

One Taliban fighter is clad in the bulletproof vest of a dead French soldier. Another proudly shows off a French walkie-talkie. Yet another wears a camouflaged French Army helmet.
A glossy six-page photo spread published Thursday and featuring a group of insurgents who say they killed 10 French soldiers in Afghanistan on Aug. 18 has reinforced uneasiness about France's military presence there.
Published in the weekly magazine Paris Match, the spread reflected the Taliban's media strategy of undercutting support for the war in Europe and raised concern about journalists' giving insurgents a platform. Above all, it fed a broader debate about a war that is seen as increasingly protracted and deadly - and that is unpopular in several European NATO countries with troops on the ground in Afghanistan.
On Thursday, Defense Minister Hervé Morin criticized the Paris Match photo spread .
"Should we be doing the Taliban's promotion for them?" he said on France Inter radio.
"The Taliban are waging a war of communication with this kind of operation," he said. "They have understood that public opinion is probably the Achilles' heel of the international community that is present in Afghanistan."
The 10 deaths were France's worst military loss in 25 years. Since the ambush President Nicolas Sarkozy has repeatedly ruled out withdrawal of French troops, and he did so again Thursday.
"Our soldiers are fighting over there to protect us from terrorism at home," Sarkozy said during a visit to Syria. "If we let Afghanistan down, we would destabilize Pakistan, which doesn't need that."
But at home in France his words were drowned out by the emotional reaction of family members of the dead soldiers to the magazine report.
"It's a shock to see our children's killers parading their uniforms, their weapons," Joel Lepahun, the father of one of the soldiers told the radio station RTL.
The images, showing nine Taliban fighters in the barren mountains north-east of Kabul, look largely posed, with individual fighters showing off their French trophies. One photograph shows the black digital wrist watch of a dead soldier, which the Taliban gave to the photographer to take back to the soldier's parents.
In the report, the leader of the group, a man identified as Commander Farouki, vows to kill all French soldiers who do not leave Afghanistan.
Chantal Buil, the mother of another dead soldier, wrote a letter to Sarkozy, pleading with him to withdraw from Afghanistan.
"Stop following the example of President Bush," the letter read, according to the magazine le Nouvel Observateur. "Let's stay French. Let's get our soldiers out of the quagmire."
That feeling appears to be shared by a majority in the nation. A survey released by the CSA polling institute Aug. 22 indicated that 55 percent of respondents wanted France to leave Afghanistan, while 36 percent said it should stay.
The battle for public opinion has become harder since the ambush, officials say. Contributing to the unease was a leaked report suggesting that errors of judgment and a lack of coordination with NATO allies were in part responsible for the death of the 10 soldiers and the wounding of 21.