French "Disinvited" to Red Flag Ops

French military pilots were supposed to take part in one of the world's premier aerial-combat schools next year. It's an honor for another country to be invited to the school. But the invitation is for friends only. That's why, a couple of weeks ago, a Pentagon official reportedly phoned the military attache at the French Embassy in Washington and said, in essence, don't bother showing up.  Red Flag operations, the French were told, "are going to be reserved for those with whom we will likely be participating in operations in the future."

Not Exactly What You'd Call A Subtle Hint

It was the second time in a month the Pentagon issued an unmistakable signal to the French that relations, often strained since the end of World War II, are at absolute low-ebb. In late April, DOD told the French that American military forces wouldn't be doing their famous aerobatic and static displays at the world-renouned Paris Air Show.

The snubs come after France blocked a UN Security Council vote on military action in Iraq earlier this year. They also come amid reports that France, which has always had close ties to Iraq, provided visas and other assistance to Saddam Hussein's leadership in a bid to help them escape the allied invasion of Iraq. "France has historically had a very close relationship with Iraq . . . that continued right up until the outbreak of the war. What took place thereafter," said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (right) last week, "we'll find out."

Petty Recriminations?

That remark brought a sharp rebuke from some Washington think-tank analysts. "It does look like the Pentagon is on its own private vendetta against France," said Michael O'Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brooking Institution, in a Washington Post interview. He said it was "not helpful to US foreign policy. It's not smart. Military-to-military cooperation was not the problem here, and the French Ministry of Defense was not the problem," O'Hanlon said. "We need the French Ministry of Defense to help in the stabilization of Iraq. This just smacks of vengeance for pettiness' sake."

At the French Embassy in Washington, spokeswoman Nathalie Loiseau said her country thinks measures such as the Red Flag and Paris Air Show cancellations were "more cosmetic" than substantive, designed to "show that you're not happy with someone. We were told in a telephone call from the Air Force to the military attache on May 8 that we were not invited to the 2004 session of the exercise," Loiseau said. "We asked why, but were told nothing precise."

While Secretary of State Colin Powell, attending the G-8 Ministerial Conference in France last week, bluntly said the French would be punished for their pro-Saddam activities, the Air Force is keeing a low-profile on the Red Flag and Paris Air Show issues. A USAF spokesman said yesterday that "due to the quality of the training at Red Flag, the US Air Force continually has more requests for participation than it can accommodate."

FMI: www.af.mil