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French troops face complicated military landscape in Mali
The Washington Post ^ | January 24, 2013 | Sudarsan Raghavan and Edward Cody

Posted on 01/24/2013 5:36:49 PM PST by MinorityRepublican

DIABALY, Mali — When France entered the world’s newest war against terrorism, French officials boldly declared that the ragtag radical Islamists they planned to oust from northern Mali would scatter in the face of a modern fighting force.

But two weeks later, reality has sunk in. Even as they bombard Islamist targets, the French troops are facing a military landscape that is far more complicated than it appeared at the outset, raising questions about France’s long-term goals.

With no clear exit strategy, the French are encountering a host of problems: Mali’s interim government is weak, its military is disorganized, and a long-promised African intervention force is far from ready. Even as French troops worry about killing civilians, it is unclear who the civilians are and where their sympathies lie. Ethnic, religious and regional rivalries, as well as old and unsettled vendettas, also are posing obstacles.

The Malian army, which France sought to bolster with its action, has been accused of committing abuses, particularly against the Tuareg ethnic group, whose separatists launched the March rebellion that has divided this West African nation. That could erode popular support for the military intervention here and in France, and it could complicate France’s ability to recruit secular Tuareg militias to battle the Islamists.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; france; frenchtroops; gwot; mali; maliwar

1 posted on 01/24/2013 5:36:54 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

Now the Wash. Post’s smear campaign against the French military and government begins. If you see “Edward Cody’s” name on an article, you know a hitman has been brought in.

He did it on Israel re the PLO/Lebanon conflicts in the late 1980’s and early 90’s.

Other WP hitpeople include Karen DeYoung, the defender of the Marxist Sandinistas; E. J. Dionne, politics; Dana Milbank, politics; Walter Pincus - intelligence, etc.

There are more, believe me.


2 posted on 01/24/2013 5:44:11 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: MinorityRepublican
Is that so? I thought Mali would be just ideal and very easy to walz in get the right outcome.

To quote the lyrics of the song Baker Street: "You used to think it would be so easy ..."

3 posted on 01/24/2013 7:39:02 PM PST by BlackVeil
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To: MinorityRepublican
1954 - Dien Bien Phu

2013 - Tombouctou...?

4 posted on 01/24/2013 7:43:59 PM PST by edpc (Wilby 2012)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Once you baseline “Rules of Engagement” you end up in a quagmire. In this case, the Muslims simply melted in to the local population and that leaves the French unable to defeat them. In Bosnia, the Serbs saw the same thing, but instead rounded up the ‘locals’ of fighting age and detained them (and killed many). For that they were convicted of “war crimes”.

The Muslims know our weaknesses, and they are EXPERTS at exploiting it.


5 posted on 01/24/2013 8:32:57 PM PST by BobL
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To: BobL

Yeah....I imagine the Muslims are melting into many UScities as we speak...


6 posted on 01/24/2013 8:43:18 PM PST by goodnesswins (R.I.P. Doherty, Smith, Stevens, Woods.)
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To: goodnesswins

Germany in 1939 was a bankrupt, small, land locked nation of a few million who spoke one language.

Islam today is rich in oil money, has billions of followers, and has millions occupying every language and nation on the Earth.

When Lucifer send them word to act, the war will be over in a few minutes.

We could act first. We could stop it all right now.

We will not.

We are as vanquished as Byzantium. And no one will even be around to write our history.


7 posted on 01/24/2013 9:59:10 PM PST by Waywardson (I did not vote for that pro-abortionist candidate!)
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To: Waywardson

Actually by 1939 Germany was doing pretty good. The factories were cranking out the war material, the miners in the Saar were mining the coals to feed the blast furnaces of the mighty Krupp factories.It was a nation of some 80 million people and wasn’t land locked. There were the port cities of Bremerhaven, Willhelmshaven,Hamburg and Rostock to name a few.


8 posted on 01/24/2013 10:54:07 PM PST by jmacusa (Political correctness is cultural Marxism. I'm not a Marxist.)
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To: BobL

Send more Legionaries! Send more tanks! Get some Germans in there and some Leopard Tanks! All else fails—go nuclear with some high radiation bombs.


9 posted on 01/25/2013 3:35:25 AM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll)
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To: Waywardson

One nuke and ballgame over. We woud have top tap our oil supply afterwards.


10 posted on 01/25/2013 8:32:55 AM PST by USAF80
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To: MinorityRepublican

Afghanistan, but black —wow.

GREAT conflict for us to avoid totally.

VIETNAM written allllll over this one....!


11 posted on 01/25/2013 5:19:07 PM PST by gaijin
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To: MinorityRepublican

“With no clear exit strategy, the French are encountering a host of problems: Mali’s interim government is weak, its military is disorganized, and a long-promised African intervention force is far from ready. Even as French troops worry about killing civilians, it is unclear who the civilians are and where their sympathies lie. Ethnic, religious and regional rivalries, as well as old and unsettled vendettas, also are posing obstacles.”

Reads just like Iraq circa 2003. NATION BUILDING IN TURD WORLD COUNTRIES DOES NOT WORK!!


12 posted on 01/27/2013 7:35:33 AM PST by KantianBurke (Where was the Tea Party when Dubya was spending like a drunken sailor?)
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To: KantianBurke

Colin Powell didn’t want us to go into Iraq back in ‘03, reportedly he warned Bush “you break it, you end up owning it”


13 posted on 01/27/2013 9:42:14 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
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