Francois Hollande, French President-Elect, Confirms Afghanistan Exit In 2012

France's Socialist Party (PS) candidate for the 2012 French presidential election Francois Hollande gives a speech during a campaign meeting in the western city of Quimper, on April 23, 2012. (JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD/AFP/Getty Images)

After his election to the French presidency on Sunday, Francois Hollande wasted no time in following through on one of his highest-profile campaign pledges.

Hollande's communications director, Manuel Valls, confirmed to the Telegraph on Monday that France will "announce the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan between now and the end of the year." The announcement will take place at the NATO summit being held in Chicago on May 20 and 21.

Members of the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, agreed in 2010 to end their combat role at the end of 2014 while slowly transferring control of sections of the country to Afghan security forces. Hollande, however, pledged a much more rapid withdrawal than envisioned by NATO during his run against outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, a foreign policy advisor to Hollande and potential defense minister, told Reuters last month that "French combat troops had no business in Afghanistan now and a pullout should be executed within eight months."

France had 3,308 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan as of April 12, 2012, making it the fifth-largest contributor to the war effort. While NATO has attempted to downplay past announcements of faster withdrawals by ISAF members, including the United States, the loss of French troops so early in the transition process could signal serious difficulties for the coalition.

President Barack Obama already had invited Hollande to meet at the White House before the NATO summit on "a range of shared economic and security challenges." The Telegraph claims that Obama is "likely to appeal to Mr Hollande to remain in Afghanistan" at the meeting.

Related on HuffPost:

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• French President and UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy waves to wellwishers as he and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, center right, leave after casting their votes for the second round of the presidential elections in Paris Sunday May 6, 2012. The election could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)

• French President and UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, center left, casts his vote for the second round of the presidential elections as his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, left, looks on in Paris Sunday May 6, 2012. The election could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)

• Parisians queue to cast their ballots for the second round of the presidential election in Paris Sunday, May 6, 2012. The election could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

• Former International Monetary Fund leader, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, waves as he leaves a polling station after voting for the second round of the French presidential elections in Sarcelles, north of Paris, Sunday, May 6, 2012. The election could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

• A voter casts her ballot for the second round of the presidential elections in Paris Sunday May 6, 2012. The election could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/laurent Cipriani)

• French far-right leader of the National Front Party Marine Le Pen, leaves the polling booth prior to casting her vote in the second round of the presidential elections in Henin-Beaumont, northern France, Sunday, May 6, 2012. The election could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

• An Ultra Orthodox Jewish man opens a curtain of a voting both before casting his vote for the French presidential elections in a voting station at French consulate in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, May 6, 2012. French citizens voted in a presidential run-off election on Sunday that could see Socialist challenger Francois Hollande defeat incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy by capitalizing on public anger over the government's austerity policies. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

• Socialist Party candidate for the presidential election Francois Hollande waves from his car as he tours through villages near Tulle, central France, after voting in the second round of the presidential elections, Sunday, May 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

Comments

[mountain8]

10:03 AM on 05/19/2012

smart. we should follow.

[Dave Harpe]

11:06 AM on 05/11/2012

Let's see if he has the courage to actually keep this promise. Obama does not dare stand up to the military industrial complex and the far right here, and do the same.

[Scent]

03:43 AM on 05/09/2012

We called them cowards because they would not enter Iraq to massacre innocents with us. And we did that so that no one would notice the REAL reason they did not enter Iraq: our invasion had nothing to do with WMDs as we all know. It had to do with american big oil wanting to stop Iraq selling oil to Russia's gazprom and to Total. The french oil corporation. We demanded France enter Iraq to fight AGIANST THEIR OWN OIL CONTRACTS!!!

That France did go to Afghanistan with us happened before that. We have no busines there, no one has business there. But Halliburton made over 250 BILLION in profits there so we stay. Lockheed Martin - also with a Cheney in control - mede billions more in profit that the american people paid for.

Fanrce is not a coward not to enter an illegal war with us. They are just less of a war criminal than we chose to be. Because that is what the Iraq war was and is. The biggest war crime of this young century.

But it made profit for the parasites so it was good. Or so the so called free press tells us.

[vascopyjama]

12:38 AM on 05/09/2012

The thing is that in France you don't have to be a billionaire or multimillionaire to run for President.

[Captain Kyrie Val Kyrie]

12:10 AM on 05/09/2012

Heads rolling in France isn't really unexpected news.

[stephanemot]

09:12 PM on 05/08/2012

A withdrawal 1 year ahead of schedule is not what I call 'dramatic' change.
France voted, and clearly refused to change: http://e-blogules.blogspot.com/2012/05/france-refuses-to-change.html

[Drew Yarbro]

08:53 PM on 05/08/2012

Irrespective of the man's potential to send the world into another recession, I will have immense respect for him if he goes through with this promise.

[Robert Frano]

08:00 PM on 05/08/2012

I say 'thanks' to France's incoming president.
While I haven't visited the Staten Island, NY landfill where they currently 'reside', (spalltered on / all over crisped/torn WTC girders), 359 in my micro-bio silently agree...

[mtfer032359]

06:56 PM on 05/08/2012

well, im glad the french have some sense.

[handspring]

06:46 PM on 05/08/2012

Hurrah! Vive ls France!

[Reno Fickler]

05:44 PM on 05/08/2012

In 1954 the US was basically 'bank-rolling' the French in Vietnam. Up to 80% of their attempt to thwart Communism was our money. After their defeat at Dien Bien Phu and subsequent withdrawl our aid stoppped and our involvement increased (ref. 'Killing Hope' by Wm. Blum-Black Horse Books). Does the same scenario exist here? France's oil and rubber interests in Vietnam, i.e., Michelin rubber plantations (I was the 'Shooter on a gun jeep' that escorted Amer. convoys thru there) were their prime concern. Do they have similar financial interests in Afghanistan? Or have they 'seen-the-light' of an unwinnable conflict?

[Rooster Coburn]

05:09 PM on 05/08/2012

At least they are leaving with their white flags still intact.

[KaAp]

09:00 PM on 05/08/2012

Said the man who thinks he is John Wayne.

[mansterEZ]

04:25 PM on 05/08/2012

Now that's REAL socialist rhetoric. Paying attention Rethuglicaintz and Democritz. War is not an end, it's only the beginning of trying to solve violence with more violence. The only winners at war are profiteers and sociopaths. Everyone else is a casualty or survivor.

[BBQribsNOnapkin]

04:16 PM on 05/08/2012

Take note submental conservatives (I know, the description is redundant, apologies): this is how a Socialist REALLY behaves.

Now don't forget to not learn from this teaching experience.

[KaAp]

09:01 PM on 05/08/2012

I fear that American conservatives cannot learn. There is never a teachable moment with them.

[BBQribsNOnapkin]

02:46 PM on 05/09/2012

I unconditionally agree. It is very painful that we continue to suffer because of their inability (or perhaps unwillingness) to learn. For a time I analyzed their philosophy, their ideology, their culture for the answer, but it has become apparent to me that they quite literally suffer from a learning disability.

[rog1112]

03:45 PM on 05/08/2012

What if there was a war and no one showed up?

GOP to the rescue: Grand/Corporate Operational Personhood/Drones-- 24/7/365!

[lupusnoire]

08:01 AM on 05/11/2012

To me GOP is Greed, Obfuscation, Plunder. While a great many claim to be Christian they forget the main message of Christ and worship money. And many, perhaps most, Americans could live just as happily with less material wealth if in exchange there was more personal security. Personal security is not just a matter of being safe from those foreign powers that want to attack America. It is much closer to home than that. It is knowing that you will have a job if you are willing to work. It is knowing you have access to good education and adequate health care. It is being safe in our homes. And it is knowing that justice is not just a word but a reality. When jobs are shipped to whoever is desperate enough to do them for a fraction of their worth, education becomes both too expensive for many and becomes mere training for corporate jobs rather than real education (teaching people what to think without teaching them how to think) and a lack of health care and crime rates put fear into lives then there is no security. Add to that a cohort group of ruthless individuals who are making obscene profits and building empires so insulated from justice that they can plunder the economy, plunder the monetary security of the working class, and it is a formula for disaster. Beware anyone whose idea of social reform is to cut himself a bigger piece of the pie.

[rog1112]

12:44 PM on 05/11/2012

Remembering that our constitution says to better our union via concern for our welfare, by and for the people and not corporate personhoods or banks, is the test. Our people need to wake up!