President Sarkozy, whose country has about 1,900 troops, said France would continue to help build Afghan security forces, in particular by training the Afghan Army and police and did not rule out an increase of French troops. He said a decision would be made in the next few weeks.
"The war against terrorism, against fanaticism, that we cannot and will not lose," the French president told reporters traveling with him.
Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, also arrived unexpectedly Saturday, as did Sarkozy, for security reasons. Rudd, who was elected only a month ago -- on Nov. 24 -- pledged an additional $110 million in aid over the next two years.
And on Sunday it was the turn of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi who arrived in Kabul for talks with President Karzai and later met Italian troops in Herat. Italy has some 2,000 serving with the NATO force.
Coming at a time of a growing insurgency led by the Taliban, the symbolism behind the visits by Sarkozy, Rudd and Prodi to Afghanistan is not to be missed. These visits carry two messages; the first is to the Taliban and al-Qaida; it tells them that the West has not given up the fight against extremism. The second message comes in the form of the best Christmas gift President George W. Bush could have ever hoped for – a renewed pledge of support from the Europeans and Australia.
President Sarkozy's visit is of particular importance as it demonstrates France's continued alignment with Washington in the war against Islamist terrorism.
The visits also demonstrate that despite losses in human lives, the U.S.'s allies in the war against terrorism know they have no choice but to continue the fight. More than 330 foreign soldiers have been killed in the past two years in Afghanistan as the Taliban has started to re surgere-appear. Only last week the Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar called on foreign forces to withdraw from Afghanistan.
But there is more than concerns about terrorism. Afghanistan has in recent years restarted exporting its other major national product: opium. This is rapidly becoming a growing concern in Europe and in the United States. Afghanistan's opium export is in fact a double-edged sword. On the one side it floods the European and U.S. markets with its derivative, heroin. And on the other it fills the war coffers of the Taliban, allowing them to pursue their attacks against NATO troops.
This makes the war in Afghanistan not only one against terrorism, but also a war on drugs. Neither of which can be lost.