France has suspended all operations with the Afghan army and threatened to withdraw its forces early from the country after an Afghan soldier shot dead four French troops, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Speaking to French diplomats Friday, President Nicolas Sarkozy said, reports the Washington Post, that if security conditions for the country’s troops in Afghanistan cannot be restored, “then the question of an early withdrawal of the French army would arise.” He said French troops were in Afghanistan to help Afghans fight terrorism and the Taliban, and “The French army is not in Afghanistan so that Afghan soldiers can shoot at them.”

Contrast that French reaction to Australia’s Julia Gillard back on 9 November 2011 after the shooting of Australian soldiers by an Afghan army soldier they were supposedly training:

Overnight we’ve seen another highly distressing incident in Afghanistan, three Australian soldiers have been wounded as a result of the actions of a rogue Afghan National Army soldier who using an automatic weapon and a grenade launcher fired upon our troops wounding three.

The three wounded soldiers have been medically evacuated to Kandahar, their condition is serious but they are receiving the best of possible care. This incident following the dreadful, dreadful circumstances of the 29th of October when three Australians were killed and seven were wounded by an Afghan National Army soldier will cause a lot of Australians today to question our mission in Afghanistan and to feel a real sense of distress. These attacks corrode trust, and I am very conscious that this attack, coming so soon after the dreadful killings of the 29th of October, will work to cause Australians to question our mission in Afghanistan and the trust we should have in Afghan National Army soldiers.

To the people of Australia on this difficult day I do want to say the following: I have just been in Afghanistan meeting with our troops and with our commanding officers. Progress is being made in Uruzgan Province, progress is being made to expand security there. Training the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police is pivotal to our mission, our purpose there is to train Afghan people so that they can provide security for their own nation and so we can transition to Afghan led security and ultimately bring our troops back from Afghanistan.

There are around 300,000 Afghan National Army soldiers and so our training mission is Uruzgan is on track to train Afghan National Army soldiers at the pace we had determined to do that training and work is happening across Afghanistan to train Afghan National Army soldiers.

As distressing as these incidents are, as dreadful as these incidents are, our mission in Afghanistan does need to continue, training is pivotal to that mission and our purpose is Afghanistan is to deny Afghanistan as a country in which terrorists can train to reap violence around the world.

I’m very conscious that today three Australian families have received to the news that their loved ones have been wounded in such dreadful circumstances. To those Australian families I say my thoughts and the thoughts of the Australian nation are with them as they deal with this dreadful news today.