France Must be ‘Prepared to Accept Losing Its Children’ to War With Russia to Deter Conflict, Says Defence Chief

( Breitbart )

To present a credible deterrence against Russian aggression in Europe, France’s civilians must stand behind the military, be “prepared to accept losing its children” and “prepared to suffer economically”, the Chief of the Defence Staff has said.

Hard-edged remarks about developing a sense of French solidarity and resolution in the face of threats have triggered a lively debate in France, with condemnation coming particularly from the hard left after Emmanuel Macron’s Chief of the Defence Staff General Fabien Mandon told the nation that France’s large military and advanced weapons technology won’t deter future wars if there’s no will to persevere on the home front.

Addressing a congress of mayors from across France, General Mandon told the gathered local politicians that he was working to prepare the French military for an anticipated conflict in the next few years, but that the force could only be effective in deterring wars if would-be opponents understood the French people were determined to see it through, with voters prepared to stick with politicians sending young people to the front lines.

Security concerns highlighted included the U.S. pivot from Europe to Asia, Chinese ascendency, and Russian aggression, as well as conflicts in the Middle East and Saharan Africa. The General said he didn’t want to paint too bleak a picture, but nevertheless reflected that “the deterioration is accelerating”.

France is “fundamentally stronger”, richer and more developed than Russia, the General said, but it lacked the “uninhibited” willingness of the Russian state to plough what comparatively little it has in its economy into the military. Worse, according to the intelligence General Mandon said he had, Russia is planning a new war in Europe and may think that the countries best placed to oppose it — like France — are too passive to take decisive action.

He said: “we must accept that we live in a world at risk and that we may have to use force to protect who we are. This is something that had completely disappeared from our family discussions, I think. I imagine that in your communities, it’s rare for our fellow citizens to spontaneously talk about the danger posed by Russia.

Most controversially, the General said: “What we lack, and this is where [local political leaders] have a major role to play, is the strength of soul to accept hurting ourselves to protect what we are… If our country falters because it is not prepared to accept losing its children, because [these discussions never happened], because it is not prepared to suffer economically because we don’t want to prioritise defence production, then we are at risk”.

These hypothetical lost children would have to be accepted as sacrificed for remote wars, he said, stating “This isn’t about Russian tanks landing in Alsace”, but rather is about “solidarity” with the European NATO members on the alliance’s eastern flank. And “from the moment we commit to solidarity, at that moment, we are committing the young women and men who have chosen to serve in uniform”, he said, noting: “It’s like in sports. You can be the best winger in rugby, but if there isn’t a whole team behind you… You can’t play rugby individually; it’s a team sport. So, in the same way, our defense will be solid if we play as a team with the Europeans. And France has a leadership role because it is seen as a leader in Europe in this area.”

The speech suggests that France is considerably further down the road towards militarising society than the United Kingdom is — Western Europe’s only other nuclear power — which has talked at length about the need to have such discussions with its populace but which has not actually done so — yet.

The nuance of General Mandon’s speech was that if France could show itself to the world as absolutely equipped, determined, and willing to fight those deaths would never actually come, as potential aggressors would be effectively deterred: Si vis pacem, para bellum. Nevertheless, the speech caused a splash in Paris, with the left-wing political opposition to the Macron government reacting with outrage, while the right seemed content to avoid the debate altogether.

Leader of France’s main left-wing bloc La France Insoumise (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon has spoken out to criticise the speech, the general, and the government for the comments several times, insisting that under a democratic republic the matters discussed by the General should be the purview of politicians only, with the military a servant to civil power. These remarks pre-supposed that the General was freelancing, despite having opened his speech by relating that French President Emmanuel Macron had “asked me to allow him to protect the French people, to protect our interests, to protect our country in all”.

Mélenchon said: “I want to express total disagreement with the speech of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces. It is not up to him to go and invite mayors or anyone at all to war preparations decided by no one… Nor to anticipate sacrifices that would be the consequence of our diplomatic failures”.

In a broadcast address, Mélenchon demanded President Macron call the General “to order”, and stated “General Mandon delivered a speech based on excessively alarmist assessments and predictions… The general said that we would have to accept the risk of losing children and suffering economically. That’s a mistake… by publicly discussing war scenarios in an archaic nuclear-age vision of warfare, the general oversteps his role.”

While Mélenchon’s LFI is an unmistakably hard-left party, France’s voters are well served by a wide diversity of parties and even further across the political scale are the Trotskyite Worker’s Struggle Party, whose three-time-failed Presidential candidate Nathalie Arthaud went even further with a gently implied death threat against General Mandon for his remarks. Citing the words of the The Internationale she said: “If these cannibals persist in making heroes of us, they will soon learn that our bullets are for our own generals”.