Italy’s bribery strategy proved more creative than the typical French strategy of retreat and surrender, but considerably more deadly.
The Australian reports via Andrew Bolt:
TEN French soldiers killed in Afghanistan failed to realise the risks in the area because Italian officials had secretly paid the Taliban to desist from violence.
The Italian secret service had been paying tens of thousands of dollars to Taliban commanders and local warlords to keep the Sarobi area near Kabul quiet in the months before French forces moved in.
The French had been in charge of the area for just a month when the 10 soldiers were killed in an insurgent ambush in August 2008, in one of the biggest single losses of life for NATO forces in Afghanistan.
“Sacre bleu, Henri, pour me another glass of that insouciant ’93 chardonnay. This Afghanistan duty is a lot easier than I…(BANG)…”
Source: Andrew Bolt
