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| An Unexpected Mission for France’s Defense Minister | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| PARIS — Jean-Yves Le Drian, a lifelong Socialist, remembers vividly the day Nicolas Sarkozy called to offer him the post of defense minister. | PARIS — Jean-Yves Le Drian, a lifelong Socialist, remembers vividly the day Nicolas Sarkozy called to offer him the post of defense minister. |
| It was in the spring of 2007, just after Mr. Sarkozy was elected France’s president. Mr. Le Drian had decided to give up Parliament and remain head of Brittany — an important naval and military area — and he was handing out anti-Sarkozy literature on the street. He took the call from the new president in the entryway of a building. | It was in the spring of 2007, just after Mr. Sarkozy was elected France’s president. Mr. Le Drian had decided to give up Parliament and remain head of Brittany — an important naval and military area — and he was handing out anti-Sarkozy literature on the street. He took the call from the new president in the entryway of a building. |
| “And there was a dog there, which was trying to pee on me while I was on the telephone,” he said, laughing. “And I yelled, ‘Get away! Get lost!’ ” | |
| He was flattered to be asked, Mr. Le Drian said in an interview, but not persuaded — even when Mr. Sarkozy later offered him the job again. | He was flattered to be asked, Mr. Le Drian said in an interview, but not persuaded — even when Mr. Sarkozy later offered him the job again. |
| Mr. Le Drian, 65, has the job now, asked to serve by his friend of 30 years, the current French Socialist president, François Hollande. But it is not the job Mr. Le Drian expected — France is at war in Mali, far away, without Western allies on the ground. And critics are quick to suggest that having decided to go to war so quickly, after an appeal for help from Mali’s transitional president, France will have a hard time extricating itself. | Mr. Le Drian, 65, has the job now, asked to serve by his friend of 30 years, the current French Socialist president, François Hollande. But it is not the job Mr. Le Drian expected — France is at war in Mali, far away, without Western allies on the ground. And critics are quick to suggest that having decided to go to war so quickly, after an appeal for help from Mali’s transitional president, France will have a hard time extricating itself. |
| He knew he would have to manage France’s early pullout from Afghanistan, which did not please Washington or other NATO allies. But he did not expect to manage a war. | He knew he would have to manage France’s early pullout from Afghanistan, which did not please Washington or other NATO allies. But he did not expect to manage a war. |
| “I had always been the boss of regional councils, but not in a situation to decide a war,” he said. “I had never in my life been confronted with such a situation.” As a Breton, he said, “I come from very modest and local beginnings, from a region that has been excluded for a long time, and I have the tendency to be discreet and reserved, not to show too much.” He considers himself Mr. Hollande’s “good soldier.” | “I had always been the boss of regional councils, but not in a situation to decide a war,” he said. “I had never in my life been confronted with such a situation.” As a Breton, he said, “I come from very modest and local beginnings, from a region that has been excluded for a long time, and I have the tendency to be discreet and reserved, not to show too much.” He considers himself Mr. Hollande’s “good soldier.” |
| In the weeks since Jan. 11, when France went to war in Mali, Mr. Le Drian said, he has learned a lot about himself and those around him. He has had to go before the public, the Legislature and the news media to explain, justify and describe the war. He has also discovered in these weeks, he said, “that I have become stronger.” Being responsible for the lives of others at war “is not a burden, but a permanent tension,” he said. “I don’t see it as a burden, but as a duty. That’s a help.” | In the weeks since Jan. 11, when France went to war in Mali, Mr. Le Drian said, he has learned a lot about himself and those around him. He has had to go before the public, the Legislature and the news media to explain, justify and describe the war. He has also discovered in these weeks, he said, “that I have become stronger.” Being responsible for the lives of others at war “is not a burden, but a permanent tension,” he said. “I don’t see it as a burden, but as a duty. That’s a help.” |
| Mr. Le Drian, who in a public career of many decades sat on numerous defense committees, spoke aboard a small, elegant jet of the French fleet. He was returning from two days of an official visit in Qatar, the tiny emirate that has played such a large role in Libya and now in Syria, and that created the powerful cable channel Al Jazeera. | |
| Mali was his topic, Mr. Le Drian said, as France looks for help in supporting African troops who are supposed to take over from Paris. But the Qataris were more interested in discussing Syria, and how to shift the balance of the long, bloody civil war against President Bashar al-Assad by arming the nonradical opposition. | Mali was his topic, Mr. Le Drian said, as France looks for help in supporting African troops who are supposed to take over from Paris. But the Qataris were more interested in discussing Syria, and how to shift the balance of the long, bloody civil war against President Bashar al-Assad by arming the nonradical opposition. |
| The longer victory takes, he said the Qataris had told him, “the more the most radical groups are strengthened.” And the stability of Lebanon, another former French colony, remains of deep concern to both countries. | |
| But obviously it is Mali, where French troops are doing nearly all the fighting, that preoccupies Mr. Le Drian. The effort has begun well, but it must end well, too, he said, unlike the chaos in Libya, where a weak central government cannot control regional militias and arms are flowing freely across borders, including to the Islamists in Mali. | |
| The intervention in Libya did not finish properly, he said. “We can’t allow ourselves this in Mali.” | The intervention in Libya did not finish properly, he said. “We can’t allow ourselves this in Mali.” |
| Two French soldiers have died so far — the first shot from the ground on the first day, and the second on Tuesday in a clash with Islamists in Mali’s northern mountains. But there have been long nights of anxiety, too. When the French sent 200 parachutists into Timbuktu, it was about 4:30 a.m. in Paris. Aides woke up Mr. Le Drian to tell him the news; he waited until 6 to call Mr. Hollande. | Two French soldiers have died so far — the first shot from the ground on the first day, and the second on Tuesday in a clash with Islamists in Mali’s northern mountains. But there have been long nights of anxiety, too. When the French sent 200 parachutists into Timbuktu, it was about 4:30 a.m. in Paris. Aides woke up Mr. Le Drian to tell him the news; he waited until 6 to call Mr. Hollande. |
| There are already concerns about “mission creep” — France wants to hand off as soon as possible to the West African regional group Ecowas and allies like Chad, whose troops, being more light-skinned like the Arabs and Tuaregs of Mali’s north, are more acceptable to residents there than the darker-skinned Malian Army. France wants a new United Nations Security Council resolution to rebadge the African force as blue-helmeted peacekeepers and has been pushing for new elections in Mali, now scheduled for July 7. | |
| But the French are also waiting for European Union military trainers to help restore the broken Malian Army, a mission approved by Brussels only on Monday, and the collapsed state itself must be rebuilt. Part of that process must be a negotiated reconciliation between Bamako and Tuareg nationalists who had sided with the Islamists and must agree to give up their demand for independence in return for an undefined autonomy or federal state. | But the French are also waiting for European Union military trainers to help restore the broken Malian Army, a mission approved by Brussels only on Monday, and the collapsed state itself must be rebuilt. Part of that process must be a negotiated reconciliation between Bamako and Tuareg nationalists who had sided with the Islamists and must agree to give up their demand for independence in return for an undefined autonomy or federal state. |
| All this will take many months and require stability, Mr. Le Drian concedes, and while the French express hope that African forces will pursue the Islamists into the mountains and deserts of the vast north, it is highly likely that French special forces will have to continue to operate on their own and alongside the Africans, with the help of American surveillance drones. | All this will take many months and require stability, Mr. Le Drian concedes, and while the French express hope that African forces will pursue the Islamists into the mountains and deserts of the vast north, it is highly likely that French special forces will have to continue to operate on their own and alongside the Africans, with the help of American surveillance drones. |
| One of the most shocking lessons for him from Mali, Mr. Le Drian said, was the lack of French surveillance drones, which he called “incomprehensible.” France has only two drones in theater, he said. “A country with aeronautical skills, that makes good airplanes and that did not anticipate what surveillance and intelligence will look like tomorrow — or even combat!” he said. France “did not anticipate and refused to make this choice — but this doesn’t date from today but from 5 or 10 years ago. I have asked that someone explain the story to me so I understand why we didn’t do it, since, really, we should have.” | |
| Perhaps the problem was national pride and a refusal to buy American? “I’m trying to remedy this impasse and this pride,” he said. “It’s a real question for us.” | Perhaps the problem was national pride and a refusal to buy American? “I’m trying to remedy this impasse and this pride,” he said. “It’s a real question for us.” |
| Similarly, he said, France lacks adequate air refueling capacity, for which again he thanks Washington, which after some hesitation agreed to provide refueling planes. As for air transport, France would always rely on its allies in NATO, he said. “That issue we finally fixed without too much trouble because we were supported by the British, the Americans, but also the Spanish, the Germans and the Canadians.” | Similarly, he said, France lacks adequate air refueling capacity, for which again he thanks Washington, which after some hesitation agreed to provide refueling planes. As for air transport, France would always rely on its allies in NATO, he said. “That issue we finally fixed without too much trouble because we were supported by the British, the Americans, but also the Spanish, the Germans and the Canadians.” |
| But France must consider, he said, whether it can continue to rely on such burden-sharing, or strive for self-sufficiency — highly unlikely given austerity measures. | But France must consider, he said, whether it can continue to rely on such burden-sharing, or strive for self-sufficiency — highly unlikely given austerity measures. |
| So the question arises, he agreed, for Europeans, too — will there be a real European Common Security and Defense Policy capable of acting separately from NATO, as France has always favored? After all, there is supposed to be a Eurocorps of rapid-reaction troops ready to fly at a moment’s notice, but no one ever calls on them. | So the question arises, he agreed, for Europeans, too — will there be a real European Common Security and Defense Policy capable of acting separately from NATO, as France has always favored? After all, there is supposed to be a Eurocorps of rapid-reaction troops ready to fly at a moment’s notice, but no one ever calls on them. |
| In the end, Mr. Le Drian said, the future may simply look like Mali and Libya — a coalition of willing nations, using at least some NATO assets. | In the end, Mr. Le Drian said, the future may simply look like Mali and Libya — a coalition of willing nations, using at least some NATO assets. |
| The new government has ordered a new study of military requirements in an age of lower spending; the last one was in 2008, under Mr. Sarkozy. “The principal question in the white paper is how to adapt defense to a financial crisis — defense is a matter of sovereignty, and so is the security of the public accounts,” he said. But some new investments “now seem to me inevitable, like intelligence and special forces.” | |
| Mr. Le Drian accompanied Mr. Hollande to Mali two weeks ago to thank the troops and be thanked by the Malian government. In the plane, the two men laughed about a placard that read: “Merci Papa Hollande, Merci Tonton Le Drian” — “Thank you, Papa Hollande, thank you, Uncle Le Drian.” | Mr. Le Drian accompanied Mr. Hollande to Mali two weeks ago to thank the troops and be thanked by the Malian government. In the plane, the two men laughed about a placard that read: “Merci Papa Hollande, Merci Tonton Le Drian” — “Thank you, Papa Hollande, thank you, Uncle Le Drian.” |
| It was a happy moment for a military rescue operation decided suddenly and with great risk. But it is an operation, Mr. Le Drian knows, that is far from over, and its ultimate success or failure will be laid firmly at his door. | It was a happy moment for a military rescue operation decided suddenly and with great risk. But it is an operation, Mr. Le Drian knows, that is far from over, and its ultimate success or failure will be laid firmly at his door. |