The photographs published by the weekly magazine Paris-Match showing Taliban members wearing uniforms of French soldiers killed in combat sparked a controversy regarding France’s strategy in Afghanistan. Additionally, they provoked the understandable indignation of the families of those who tragically died while performing their duty.
However, they also served to somewhat awaken public opinion regarding the nature and developments of our involvement in a foreign and distant country. What many viewed as just another peacekeeping mission under the UN flag suddenly became a war situation. The issue lies in the fact that the images preceded words that had not yet—or with great reluctance—been spoken. After all, in another conflict involving France, it took more than twenty years for the term “war” to be recognized for French operations previously modestly referred to as “maintaining order.”
Beyond the legitimate pain due to any loss of human life, this tragic event in Afghanistan might have generated different reactions if political leaders had shown the willingness to clarify the inherent risks of the shift in France’s position on the ground from the outset: initially more withdrawn—similar to the Bundeswehr soldiers whom Berlin, for reasons that may no longer be solely historical, has always refused to send to dangerous areas—French forces later became significantly more exposed alongside Canadian and American armies.
When Nicolas Sarkozy—rightly—explains in Kabul that the fight for democratic values begins in Afghanistan, his words, grounded though they may be, nevertheless lose some of their impact as they are perceived as being linked to the circumstances. If these statements had been made at the beginning of the engagement with a clear explanation of the dangers involved, the national consciousness would have understood differently the misfortune that now strikes and mourns French families. One could even wager that the compassion would have been more supportive.
But the Western world now delights in presenting itself in a sanitized, clean manner, with alarming, unpleasant, or politically delicate news kept under wraps. Even with sophisticated means, surgical strikes, satellites, and drones, war will always result in deaths.
Is the call for “national unity in the fight against terrorism” by the Minister of Defense, addressed to journalists and information professionals, not misplaced under these conditions? While the Taliban rely on the impact of images to weaken troop cohesion on the ground and create political embarrassment for Paris, isn’t it rather the fear of speaking out that plays into their strategy? By countering with transparency of information, however painful it may be, political leaders will better defuse the abject revelations of the enemy than by maintaining an awkward silence. The worst would be for the Taliban to appear as the only ones willing to die for ideals and a way of life.
