Why the French are backing the US in Iraq this time

BRUSSELS, Belgium — When a pair of Rafale fighters roared out of Iraqi skies to blast an Islamic State logistics depot earlier this month, France became the first ally to join the US-led bombing campaign against IS.

That strike and a second one on Friday are a clear indication that the government in Paris views this Iraq war very differently from that of 2003, when then-President Jacques Chirac's opposition to America's battle to topple Saddam Hussein soured Franco-US relations.

"France knows what is expected of her, France knows that it stands for values, France knows that it has a role to play and she will never back down," French President Francois Hollande told the United Nations General Assembly last week.

"The fight against terrorism will be pursued, expanded as much as is necessary."

That may sound like a risky strategy for a president of a country where the public is traditionally wary of embarking on foreign military adventures alongside the US.

This time around, however, the atrocities committed by IS and widespread fears that the group poses a direct threat to French security have left Hollande facing little public opposition to France's participation in the coalition airstrikes.

"Nobody, or almost nobody, questions the justice of a war against Islamic State, nor even Paris's political support for US military action," veteran journalist Vincent Jauvert wrote in the news weekly Nouvel Observateur.

That doesn’t mean there are no doubts, however.

In tough economic times, France's military budget has been shrinking — since 2011, it has failed every year to meet NATO's target of spending at least 2 percent of economic output on defense.

Some military experts are questioning the wisdom of spending millions on a largely symbolic support to the US air campaign when the money could be better spent on the French army's boots-on-the-ground military action against Islamist militants in West Africa.

"Militarily the Americans don't need us in Iraq," Francois Heisbourg, chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Nouvel Observateur. "Since our contribution is not indispensable, it would be better not to blow up the defense budget."

Others are dusting off the arguments from 2003, pointing out that Chirac was right when he warned US President George W. Bush's overthrow of Saddam risked unleashing ethnic and sectarian violence in Iraq and the wider region.

"Iraq is blown apart, the frontiers have been wiped out, there's a Jihadistan in the heart of the Sunni lands … the Christians are disappearing. It's the American intervention [of 2003] that generated the current situation," opinion writer Pierre Beylau wrote in the weekly Le Point.

The current international military action is packed with dangers, he wrote, particularity the arming of Kurdish fighters to take on IS on the ground.

"Kurdistan is a cluster bomb,” he wrote. “Strengthening the Kurds will eventually confirm the splintering of Iraq, trigger instability in Turkey and Iran, and lay the ground for more wars in the future.”

However, public opinion has swung behind the military action following the beheading of French citizen Herve Gourdel by an IS-related group in Algeria last week.

A poll released Friday, two days after the killing, showed 69 percent support French military strikes against IS. The figure rises to 85 percent among supporters of Hollande's Socialist Party.

Gourdel's killing underscored French concerns that IS poses a direct threat. The government estimates almost 1,000 fighters from France have joined the ranks of IS or other jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq.

"Never has our country had to confront such a challenge, such a threat, such a danger in terms of terrorism," Prime Minister Manuel Valls told parliament in Paris last week. "I'm not saying this to frighten people: We have to tell our compatriots the truth about a phenomenon which is rampant not just in France but in many countries of Europe."

For the moment, the French are limiting their attacks to Iraq rather than joining the American bombing of IS in Syria. Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says widening the operation is being discussed, but officials have cited logistical, political and legal issues against raiding Syrian targets.

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Meanwhile, government supporters say costs of operating the six Rafales flying missions over Iraq from the French air base in Abu Dhabi are limited.

They also point out that France's defense industry could benefit from a strong performance by the warplanes and other military hardware, as well as from goodwill earned by joining a coalition that includes big-spending Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

For the moment, the French like Hollande's muscular response. Another poll on Friday showed his approval rating had crept up four points to 23 percent.

However, foreign policy is unlikely to save his presidency.

Hollande enjoyed a brief jump in support early last year after he dispatched French troops to push back an Islamist advance in Mali. Grim economic data soon saw his ratings slip to record lows.