NEW YORK TIMES: For now, the French are eager to highlight their contributions to the war, which over all are third behind the Americans and the British. According to the French military, France has flown about 4,500 flights, or sorties, in the five-month war, compared to more than 5,300 American sorties in roughly the same period. France has flown a third of all NATO strike sorties, or 2,700 flights in which ordnance was readied to be dropped. The French military did not provide their total number of actual strikes, which for the United States it is at least 262, but they said that their helicopters had destroyed 450 targets in Libya.
A French military spokesman said Friday that costs to France for the war were continuing and offered no total figure, although in June, France was estimated to be spending as much as $2 million a day on the war, which would be about $300 million to date. The Pentagon estimates the cost of the war to the United States through the end of July at $896 million, which includes military operations, munitions and humanitarian aid…
In the Pentagon, the French have also gained respect for their contributions in Afghanistan. France currently has about 4,000 troops in that country, largely in the east, and 74 of them were killed over the last eight years… (more)
