Visits by presidents and prime ministers to their countries' troops serving in foreign lands, especially at the time of the year-end holidays, has become somewhat routine in recent years. However, there was nothing routine in these surprise visits. Indeed, they were intended to send many important messages to both the Islamists of the Taliban-al-Qaida alliance and to President Bush.

Sarkozy, whose country has about 1,900 troops serving with the multinational force in Afghanistan, said France would continue to help build Afghan security forces, in particular, by providing training for the Afghan army and police, and he did not rule out an increase of French troops to help the war effort. He said a decision would be made in the next few weeks.

"The war against terrorism, against fanaticism, that we cannot and will not lose," he said.

Rudd, who for security reasons arrived unexpectedly Saturday, as did Sarkozy, pledged an additional $110 million in aid over the next two years.

And on Sunday it was the turn of Prodi, who arrived in Kabul for talks with President Hamid Karzai and later met Italian troops in Herat. Italy has some 2,000 soldiers serving with the NATO force.

These visits come at a time when the Taliban-led insurgency has intensified its attacks against troops of the multinational force and suicide bombings are on the increase. Of particular importance -- and of important political symbolism -- is Sarkozy's visit. His visit is no doubt intended first to reassure Karzai of France's intentions of remaining in the NATO/U.S. coalition at this crucial time for Afghanistan, as it struggles to balance itself between remaining on the road to democracy and slipping back into the abyss of Taliban rule.

The second message is directed at the Taliban and al-Qaida and was made evident by the statements of the French president during his brief visit to Afghanistan.

And the third message comes in the form of the best Christmas gift Bush could ever wish for -- a renewed promise of support from two European allies and Australia. The triple pledge of support to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan comes at an opportune moment, as two other contributors, Canada and the Netherlands, have announced their intention of pulling out as a result of public pressure back home.

Sarkozy's visit is of particular importance as it demonstrates France's continued alignment with Washington in the war against Islamist terrorism and contrasts Sarkozy's foreign policy vis-a-vis Washington compared with that of his predecessor, Jacques Chirac.

The visits also demonstrate that despite losses in human lives, the U.S. allies in the war against terrorism know they have no choice but to remain in the fight. More than 330 foreign soldiers have been killed in the past two years in Afghanistan as the Taliban has stepped up its offensive. Only last week Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar called on foreign forces to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Terrorism, however, is not the only worry in Afghanistan. In recent years there has been an alarming increase in the production of opium. This is rapidly becoming a growing concern in Europe and the United States, where the opium ends up as heroin and other derivatives.

Not only are the Islamists getting stronger and more daring in their attacks against U.S.-led coalition troops, but they are making -- excuse the unintended pun -- a killing with the profits from the sale of the illegal narcotic.

According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, 92 percent of the world's heroin, obtained from opium poppies, comes from Afghanistan, which has regained its position as the world's largest opium-producing country. Production of opium, the main ingredient for heroin, grew from approximately 4,000 tons in 2005 to more than 6,000 tons in 2006, the U.N. report said.

This gives an added impetus to the war in Afghanistan, which is becoming more than a war on terrorism and fanaticism. The war in Afghanistan is now a war to stop the spread of terror as well as the narco-traffic providing the Taliban with an important source of revenue. As Sarkozy said Saturday, the world cannot afford to lose this war.

(Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times.)

(e-mail: [email protected])

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