Metro Jacksonville

We have already committed transports and tankers... when was the last time we helped out the French with one of their former colonies?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-french-intervention-in-mali-could-take-longer-than-first-thought-a-877794.html

QuoteHollande's War French Preparing for Extended Mali Intervention

By Matthias Gebauer

Initially, the French intervention in Mali looked as though it would be over quickly. But President Hollande has vowed to drive out Islamist extremists and establish democracy in the country. As in Afghanistan, the operation could take much longer than expected.


When French President François Hollande addressed the press in Dubai on Tuesday evening, it was impossible not to think of Afghanistan. Relying on the strong rhetoric he has used so often in the past few days, Hollande struck a belligerent tone. And then, in a single sentence, he defined the aims of the operation France launched in Mali last Friday: "We have one goal. To ensure that when we leave, when we end our intervention, Mali is safe, has legitimate authorities, an electoral process and there are no more terrorists threatening its territory."


Just as the international community did at the beginning of the Afghanistan intervention, Hollande has set the bar high. To be sure, the comparisons between the current crisis in Mali and the situation in Afghanistan on Sept. 11, 2001 are far from perfect. Still, the goals the French president has set for Mali are just as distant as those established by Washington when it launched the war in the wake of the devastating al-Qaida terror attacks in the US. And in Afghanistan, 12 years after that mission began, very few of those original goals have been met.

Hollande's statement made it clear that the French operation is not merely a brief intervention to stop the Islamist advance from northern Mali toward the capital in the south. Rather, Paris is looking for support from Africa, Europe, the US and elsewhere for an operation aimed at freeing northern Mali from the yoke of Islamist extremism and establishing long-term stability in the country.

Those who join him must be prepared for a long and difficult war.

The transportation of men and matériel are difficult enough. So far, the French have some 750 soldiers in Mali. A third of them are stationed directly on the border of the region under Islamist control, with additional units still in the capital, Bamako, preparing to head to the front.

More on the Way

Reinforcements are expected in the coming days. On Tuesday, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed reports that Paris was planning to send a total of 2,500 troops. Armored vehicles and other heavy equipment are also on the way, and the French news agency AFP reported that French forces now heading north included some 30 armored personnel carriers.

The force's size demonstrates France's determination to take the leadership role in what it hopes will become an international force to retake northern Mali. Countries belonging to the African alliance ECOWAS have promised to send up to 3,300 troops to support the French effort. So far, however, none have arrived in the country. France has said the ECOWAS forces are expected "in a few days." But a lack of transport planes and adequate equipment may delay their arrival.

Despite the regional support -- and France's clear military advantages, demonstrated in recent days with targeted airstrikes and small special forces assaults on Islamist positions -- the mission remains a dangerous one. "If you start a mission with lofty goals and moral claims, it is difficult to quickly withdraw later," says one veteran NATO diplomat with experience in Afghanistan. Indeed, despite widespread popular support at home, the leadership mantle that France has donned could ultimately become a political boomerang.

And there are plenty of open questions. ECOWAS has been promising to send troops to Mali for months, but nothing has happened. Even if the French operation speeds their arrival, it is unknown how effective the soldiers from Senegal, Burkina Faso and Niger, among other countries, actually are. In Mali itself, there is also concern about the arrival of troops from neighboring countries -- partly out of pride, but also out of fear of their presumed aggression.

Democracy?

Likewise, there is still no clear strategy for how to fight the Islamists. Intelligence officials have estimated that they have some 2,000 fighters who are extremely mobile and have excellent local knowledge of Timbuktu, Gao, Kidal and other towns and cities in northern Mali, which they were able to quickly overrun in the spring. It seems likely that they would pursue a strategy similar to the one the Taliban used in Afghanistan: first fleeing the international force to neighboring countries and then waging a guerrilla war from there.

The political situation in Mali is also a complicated one. An interim government has held power in the country since a military coup d'état last March. In recent days, government leaders have promised to hold elections in April, but it is impossible to know just how serious they are about democracy. Given that the country is essentially split in two, holding an election would be extremely challenging. Indeed, free elections in the north are virtually impossible for the time being, and a vote in which only those in the south could cast their ballots would risk strengthening the north-south divide.

Officials in Paris are well aware of the challenges facing them, as are leaders in Berlin. Germany, however, sees no alternative to supporting the French, whose rapid intervention in Mali surprised governments around the world. As recently as the weekend, the Defense Ministry in Paris was promising the mission would only last "a few weeks." Now, just a few days later, hardly anyone believes that the withdrawal will be anywhere near as rapid.

http://www.voanews.com/content/us-prepares-to-help-france-in-mali-with-caution/1583859.html

QuoteUS Prepares to Help France in Mali - With Caution

Luis Ramirez
January 14, 2013

PENTAGON â€" Pentagon officials say the United States is preparing to offer logistical support to France as it continues to carry out air strikes against Islamist militants in northern Mali.  The Pentagon has already begun to assist French forces with intelligence to help push back the militants’ advances, but the U.S. is warning against action that may bring further chaos to the region. 

French fighter jets have been carrying out air strikes around the clock, hitting training camps and other positions held by Islamist rebels in the north of the vast West African country.

Pentagon officials last week said they are close to finalizing a decision on what type of logistical support to offer France for Mali.  Officials said the U.S. is already providing intelligence gathered by unmanned aerial vehicles operating in the region.
 
Speaking on a flight to Europe, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta commended France for taking the lead in the fight to rid North and West Africa of militants including al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb group.

“We have a responsibility to make sure that al-Qaida does not establish a base for operations in North Africa and Mali.  We’ve been very concerned about AQIM and their efforts to establish a very strong base in that area," he said.

Panetta said he promised to help France, but said that support will be limited.

“It’s basically kind of in three areas that we’re looking at.  One is to obviously provide limited logistical support.  Two is to provide intelligence support.  And three, to provide some airlift capability as well," he said.

Analysts say there is a reason for Washington not to push for a more direct role in the conflict.  Thomas Dempsey is a retired U.S. Army colonel who works with the Defense Department’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies. 

“We need to be careful, in a well-intentioned desire to counter violent extremists, that we do not fan the flames of civil conflict in northern Mali, that we don’t encourage local groups to take up arms against each other, and that we don’t make the violence worse," he said.

The U.S. aim is to go after al-Qaida-linked militants in Africa.  In keeping with President Obama’s new defense strategy, it wants to do so without direct intervention, focusing instead on training the militaries of allied partner nations.

France’s immediate goals are to push back the militants’ advance in order to allow African peacekeepers to move in and start securing northern Mali for an eventual return to government control. 

But after last year’s military coup, there is no functional, legitimate government in place to retake control.  And there is no long-term plan in place, which Dempsey says makes it difficult for the United States to offer more direct assistance.

“You need to know where you want to end up before you start.  I’m not convinced that everyone involved here has a clear picture of where you want to end up," he said.

The French intervention has come at the request of Mali’s interim leaders.  Next will be the task of replacing those leaders with a legitimate and stable government that is able to take control of the North.

Before that happens, analysts say Mali will have to resolve political problems that include long-simmering grievances of Tuareg separatists whose rebellion last year led to the coup and the Islamists’ takeover of the north.   

Jennifer Cooke is an Africa specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research group in Washington. 

“Dislodging the Islamists from the north, that will be another very complicated and long term process.  The bigger problem will be the political one.  What process can restore legitimacy to the government in Bamako?  What eventual political framework can hold Mali together and can secure the North, because the North will be very difficult to secure through military means only.  You’re going to need a political arrangement," she said.

Cooke says it is a process that could take years.

It's probably one of the worst places in the world to live.

The life expectancy in Mali is 49.

I think western Africa.  I believe it has become an islamist stronghold.

Quote from: fsquid on January 16, 2013, 02:31:29 PM
I think western Africa.  I believe it has become an islamist stronghold.

Yes. Just like a lot of countries in that region. They almost all have outrageous povert and high infant mortality rates. And alot of people in those countries live a nomadic existence.

I remember when Bamako was one of the cities on the original Carmen Sandiego computer game.

Well... this is certainly escalating quickly... Now we have American hostages...  >:(

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/algerian-security-official-says-islamists-kidnap-8-foreigners-from-bp-oil-installation/2013/01/16/0db1c254-5fd2-11e2-9dc9-bca76dd777b8_story.html

QuoteAl-Qaida-linked militants seize BP complex in Algeria, take hostages over Mali intervention
By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, January 16, 2:11 PM

ALGIERS, Algeria â€" In what could be the first spillover from France’s intervention in Mali, Islamist militants attacked and occupied a natural gas complex partly operated by energy company BP in southern Algeria on Wednesday. Two foreigners were killed and dozens of others, including Americans, were taken hostage.

A militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for Algeria’s support of France’s operation against al-Qaida-linked Malian rebels groups far to the southeast. It said it was holding 41 foreigners, including seven Americans.

Algerian forces have surrounded the complex and the state news agency reported a bit more than 20 people were being held, including Americans, Britons, Norwegians, French and Japanese, citing the local authorities.

“Algeria will not respond to terrorist demands and rejects all negotiations,” Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia said on television. He denied that the militants were from Mali or Libya, possibly suggesting they were from Algeria itself.

In a statement, BP said the site was “attacked and occupied by a group of unidentified armed people,” and some of its personnel are believed to be “held by the occupiers.”

The number and identities of the hostages were still unclear, but Ireland announced that a 36-year-old married Irish man was among them, while Japan and Britain said their citizens were involved as well. A Norwegian woman said her husband called her saying he had been taken hostage.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that according to their information “U.S. citizens were among the hostages.”

In addition to those killed â€" one of them a Briton â€" six were wounded in the attack, including two foreigners, two police officers and two security agents, the state news agency reported.

Hundreds of Algerians work at the plant and were taken in the attack, but the state news agency reported that they have gradually been released in small groups, unharmed by the late afternoon.

A group called the Katibat Moulathamine, or the Masked Brigade, called a Mauritanian news outlet to say one of its affiliates had carried out the operation on the Ain Amenas gas field, taking 41 hostages from nine or 10 different nationalities, including the seven Americans.

The group’s claim could not be independently substantiated and the U.S. embassy said it wasn’t “aware of any U.S. citizen casualties.”

The caller to the Nouakchott Information Agency, which often carries announcements from extremist groups, did not give any further details, except to say that the kidnapping was carried out by “Those Who Signed in Blood,” a group created to attack the countries participating in the offensive against Islamist groups in Mali.

The Masked Brigade was formed by al-Qaida’s longtime strongman in the Sahara region, Moktar Belmoktar, a one-eyed Algerian who recently declared he was leaving the terror network’s Algerian branch, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb for his own group.

He said at the time he would still maintain ties with the central organization based out of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

French President Francois Hollande launched the surprise operation in its former West African colony on Friday, with hopes of stopping al-Qaida-linked and other Islamist extremists he believes pose a danger to the world.

Wednesday’s attack began with the ambush of a bus carrying employees from the gas plant to the nearby airport but the attackers were driven off, according to the Algerian government, which said three vehicles of heavily armed men were involved.

“After their failed attempt, the terrorist group headed to the complex’s living quarters and took a number of workers with foreign nationalities hostage,” said the statement.

Attacks on oil-rich Algeria’s hydrocarbon facilities are very rare, despite decades of fighting an Islamist insurgency, mostly in the north of the country.

In the last several years, however, al-Qaida’s influence in the poorly patrolled desert wastes of southern Algeria and northern Mali and Niger has grown and it operates smuggling and kidnapping networks throughout the area. Militant groups that seized control of northern Mali already hold seven French hostages as well as four Algerian diplomats.

The natural gas field where the attack occurred, however, is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the Mali border, though it is just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Libya’s deserts.

BP, together with Norwegian company Statoil and the Algerian state oil company, Sonatrach, operate the gas field. A Japanese company, JGC Corp, provides services for the facility as well.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said “several British nationals” are involved in the “ongoing incident,” without giving an exact number.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the kidnapped foreigners possibly include Japanese employees of JGC.

“We are certain that JGC is the one affected,” Suga said, adding that the government is now negotiating with local officials through diplomatic channels, asking to protect the lives of the Japanese nationals.

Japanese news agencies, citing unnamed government officials have said there are three Japanese hostages.

Statoil spokesman Lars Christian Bacher said the company had 13 Norwegian employees and a Canadian on the site and two of them have suffered minor injuries, but he would not comment about the situation of the others.

The Norwegian Newspaper Bergens Tidende, however, said a 55-year-old Norwegian working on the site called his wife to say he had been abducted.

Algeria had long warned against military intervention against the rebels in northern Mali, fearing the violence could spill over its own long and porous border. Though its position softened slightly after Hollande visited Algiers in December, Algerian authorities remain skeptical about the operation and worried about its consequences on the region.

Algeria is Africa’s biggest country, and has been an ally of the U.S. and France in fighting terrorism for years. But its relationship with France has been fraught with lingering resentment over colonialism and the bloody war for independence that left Algeria a free country 50 years ago.

Algeria’s strong security forces have struggled for years against Islamist extremists, and have in recent years managed to nearly snuff out violence by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb around its home base in northern Algeria. In the meantime, AQIM moved its focus southward.

AQIM has made tens of millions of dollars off kidnapping in the region, abducting Algerian businessmen or political figures, and sometimes foreigners, for ransom.

___

Paul Schemm reported from Rabat, Morocco. Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Jill Lawless in London, Jan Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, Esam Mohamed in Tripoli, Libya and Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.

Quote from: BridgeTroll on January 16, 2013, 03:16:21 PM
Well... this is certainly escalating quickly... Now we have American hostages...  >:(

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/algerian-security-official-says-islamists-kidnap-8-foreigners-from-bp-oil-installation/2013/01/16/0db1c254-5fd2-11e2-9dc9-bca76dd777b8_story.html

QuoteAl-Qaida-linked militants seize BP complex in Algeria, take hostages over Mali intervention
By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, January 16, 2:11 PM

ALGIERS, Algeria — In what could be the first spillover from France’s intervention in Mali, Islamist militants attacked and occupied a natural gas complex partly operated by energy company BP in southern Algeria on Wednesday. Two foreigners were killed and dozens of others, including Americans, were taken hostage.

A militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for Algeria’s support of France’s operation against al-Qaida-linked Malian rebels groups far to the southeast. It said it was holding 41 foreigners, including seven Americans.

Algerian forces have surrounded the complex and the state news agency reported a bit more than 20 people were being held, including Americans, Britons, Norwegians, French and Japanese, citing the local authorities.

“Algeria will not respond to terrorist demands and rejects all negotiations,” Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia said on television. He denied that the militants were from Mali or Libya, possibly suggesting they were from Algeria itself.

In a statement, BP said the site was “attacked and occupied by a group of unidentified armed people,” and some of its personnel are believed to be “held by the occupiers.”

The number and identities of the hostages were still unclear, but Ireland announced that a 36-year-old married Irish man was among them, while Japan and Britain said their citizens were involved as well. A Norwegian woman said her husband called her saying he had been taken hostage.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that according to their information “U.S. citizens were among the hostages.”

In addition to those killed — one of them a Briton — six were wounded in the attack, including two foreigners, two police officers and two security agents, the state news agency reported.

Hundreds of Algerians work at the plant and were taken in the attack, but the state news agency reported that they have gradually been released in small groups, unharmed by the late afternoon.

A group called the Katibat Moulathamine, or the Masked Brigade, called a Mauritanian news outlet to say one of its affiliates had carried out the operation on the Ain Amenas gas field, taking 41 hostages from nine or 10 different nationalities, including the seven Americans.

The group’s claim could not be independently substantiated and the U.S. embassy said it wasn’t “aware of any U.S. citizen casualties.”

The caller to the Nouakchott Information Agency, which often carries announcements from extremist groups, did not give any further details, except to say that the kidnapping was carried out by “Those Who Signed in Blood,” a group created to attack the countries participating in the offensive against Islamist groups in Mali.

The Masked Brigade was formed by al-Qaida’s longtime strongman in the Sahara region, Moktar Belmoktar, a one-eyed Algerian who recently declared he was leaving the terror network’s Algerian branch, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb for his own group.

He said at the time he would still maintain ties with the central organization based out of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

French President Francois Hollande launched the surprise operation in its former West African colony on Friday, with hopes of stopping al-Qaida-linked and other Islamist extremists he believes pose a danger to the world.

Wednesday’s attack began with the ambush of a bus carrying employees from the gas plant to the nearby airport but the attackers were driven off, according to the Algerian government, which said three vehicles of heavily armed men were involved.

“After their failed attempt, the terrorist group headed to the complex’s living quarters and took a number of workers with foreign nationalities hostage,” said the statement.

Attacks on oil-rich Algeria’s hydrocarbon facilities are very rare, despite decades of fighting an Islamist insurgency, mostly in the north of the country.

In the last several years, however, al-Qaida’s influence in the poorly patrolled desert wastes of southern Algeria and northern Mali and Niger has grown and it operates smuggling and kidnapping networks throughout the area. Militant groups that seized control of northern Mali already hold seven French hostages as well as four Algerian diplomats.

The natural gas field where the attack occurred, however, is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the Mali border, though it is just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Libya’s deserts.

BP, together with Norwegian company Statoil and the Algerian state oil company, Sonatrach, operate the gas field. A Japanese company, JGC Corp, provides services for the facility as well.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said “several British nationals” are involved in the “ongoing incident,” without giving an exact number.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the kidnapped foreigners possibly include Japanese employees of JGC.

“We are certain that JGC is the one affected,” Suga said, adding that the government is now negotiating with local officials through diplomatic channels, asking to protect the lives of the Japanese nationals.

Japanese news agencies, citing unnamed government officials have said there are three Japanese hostages.

Statoil spokesman Lars Christian Bacher said the company had 13 Norwegian employees and a Canadian on the site and two of them have suffered minor injuries, but he would not comment about the situation of the others.

The Norwegian Newspaper Bergens Tidende, however, said a 55-year-old Norwegian working on the site called his wife to say he had been abducted.

Algeria had long warned against military intervention against the rebels in northern Mali, fearing the violence could spill over its own long and porous border. Though its position softened slightly after Hollande visited Algiers in December, Algerian authorities remain skeptical about the operation and worried about its consequences on the region.

Algeria is Africa’s biggest country, and has been an ally of the U.S. and France in fighting terrorism for years. But its relationship with France has been fraught with lingering resentment over colonialism and the bloody war for independence that left Algeria a free country 50 years ago.

Algeria’s strong security forces have struggled for years against Islamist extremists, and have in recent years managed to nearly snuff out violence by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb around its home base in northern Algeria. In the meantime, AQIM moved its focus southward.

AQIM has made tens of millions of dollars off kidnapping in the region, abducting Algerian businessmen or political figures, and sometimes foreigners, for ransom.

___

Paul Schemm reported from Rabat, Morocco. Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Jill Lawless in London, Jan Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, Esam Mohamed in Tripoli, Libya and Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.

They probably watched an offensive video on You-tube!

Maybe we shouldn't have American citizens stealing Mali Algeria's resources in the first place. Colonialism lives on!!

Quote from: ben says on January 16, 2013, 03:35:46 PM
Maybe we shouldn't have American citizens stealing Mali resources in the first place. Colonialism lives on!!

Wow... ::) :o
anyway...

QuoteIslamist militants attacked and occupied a natural gas complex partly operated by energy company BP in southern Algeria on Wednesday. Two foreigners were killed and dozens of others, including Americans, were taken hostage.

Quote from: BridgeTroll on January 16, 2013, 01:36:01 PM
We have already committed transports and tankers... when was the last time we helped out the French with one of their former colonies?

As a general rule, we don't help the French out with their former colonies, unless you count humanitarian aid - although we did provide some military assistance in Syria, apparently.

Quote from: civil42806 on January 16, 2013, 03:32:00 PM
They probably watched an offensive video on You-tube!

HA HA HA! ROFLMAO! Good one there old friend!

If I'm reading this right we are seeing the start of WWIII, its a vacuum that is sucking in the super powers one by one. The more inept our Dear Leader is, the more dangerous this is becoming for lives of peace loving citizens of the world. The radical Islamist have a phenomenal and fool proof method of proselytising new territories, convert or die headless. Almost as good as the roasts held during the inquisition.

In 1919, Anton Drexler, Gottfried Feder and Dietrich Eckart formed the German Worker's Party (GPW) in Munich. The German Army was worried that it was a left-wing revolutionary group and sent Adolf Hitler, one of its education officers, to spy on the organization. Hitler discovered that the party's political ideas were similar to his own.

On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor.

By the elections of December 1924 the NSDAP won 14 seats.

Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 started World War 2 in Europe.

= 20 YEARS


The Meiji Restoration, also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji.

The Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors in 1882 enabled the military to indoctrinate thousands of men from various social backgrounds

In 1932, a group of junior naval officers and army cadets assassinated Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi.

The success of Japan in securing Taiwan 1895.

Japan annexed Korea in 1910.

The Manchurian Incident of September 1931 did not fail, and it set the stage for the Japanese military takeover of all of Manchuria.

In January 1932, Japanese forces attacked Shanghai.

Battle of Pearl Harbor 12/7/1941 was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States.

= 20 YEARS GERMANY
= 73 YEARS JAPAN
= 46.5 AVERAGE



Iran hostage crisis 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981.

In the 1983 attack on the American Marines barracks, the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers

1991 â€" 28 February 1991 The Gulf War was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized Coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States.

four coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. areas on September 11, 2001.

20 March 2003, The Iraq War armed conflict in Iraq, invasion by the United States and the United Kingdom.

The War in Afghanistan began on 7 October 2001, as the armed forces of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and the Afghan United Front.

France is sending 2,500 troops to Mali for a military invasion against rebels in the north.


= 34 YEARS
12.5 YEARS TO TOTAL WAR?

Just sayin'. I believe we are seeing the alignment of future conflict, a hell of a time to have a ruler with ZERO military experience. 

... but as for Mali, it's all the way to Timbuktu.

Quote from: Ocklawaha on January 16, 2013, 09:59:24 PM
In 1919, Anton Drexler, Gottfried Feder and Dietrich Eckart formed the German Worker's Party (GPW) in Munich. The German Army was worried that it was a left-wing revolutionary group and sent Adolf Hitler, one of its education officers, to spy on the organization. Hitler discovered that the party's political ideas were similar to his own.

On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor.

By the elections of December 1924 the NSDAP won 14 seats.

Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 started World War 2 in Europe.

= 20 YEARS


The Meiji Restoration, also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji.

The Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors in 1882 enabled the military to indoctrinate thousands of men from various social backgrounds

In 1932, a group of junior naval officers and army cadets assassinated Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi.

The success of Japan in securing Taiwan 1895.

Japan annexed Korea in 1910.

The Manchurian Incident of September 1931 did not fail, and it set the stage for the Japanese military takeover of all of Manchuria.

In January 1932, Japanese forces attacked Shanghai.

Battle of Pearl Harbor 12/7/1941 was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States.

= 20 YEARS GERMANY
= 73 YEARS JAPAN
= 46.5 AVERAGE



Iran hostage crisis 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981.

In the 1983 attack on the American Marines barracks, the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers

1991 â€" 28 February 1991 The Gulf War was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized Coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States.

four coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. areas on September 11, 2001.

20 March 2003, The Iraq War armed conflict in Iraq, invasion by the United States and the United Kingdom.

The War in Afghanistan began on 7 October 2001, as the armed forces of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and the Afghan United Front.

France is sending 2,500 troops to Mali for a military invasion against rebels in the north.


= 34 YEARS
12.5 YEARS TO TOTAL WAR?

Just sayin'. I believe we are seeing the alignment of future conflict, a hell of a time to have a ruler with ZERO military experience.

Ock just asking have you fallen and hit your head in the last couple of weeks? Your postings have become really dark?

Quote from: Adam W on January 16, 2013, 05:01:55 PM

Quote from: BridgeTroll on January 16, 2013, 01:36:01 PM
We have already committed transports and tankers... when was the last time we helped out the French with one of their former colonies?

As a general rule, we don't help the French out with their former colonies, unless you count humanitarian aid - although we did provide some military assistance in Syria, apparently.

True... especially after the "help" we provided in French Indochina...

^That wasn't a "former" colony. That was a current colony, at the time. Then they left, and we wanted it to be our colony.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_US_ALGERIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-01-16-15-17-01

Quote


Jan 16, 3:17 PM EST


US confirms Americans taken after Algeria attack

By BRADLEY KLAPPER and LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday the U.S. "will take all necessary and proper steps" to deal with an Islamist attack on a natural gas field in southern Algeria that has resulted in Americans and other foreigners taken hostage.

Panetta would not detail what such steps might be, but he condemned the incident as "terrorist attack" and likened it to al-Qaida activities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and in the United States on 9/11.

A militant group that claimed responsibility says it's holding seven Americans, but State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said she wouldn't provide details to protect those who were kidnapped. Panetta said he didn't know the numbers of those kidnapped.

Militants said they attacked and occupied the field partly operated by the energy company BP because of Algeria's support of France's operation against al-Qaida-linked Malian rebels groups to the southeast.

"It is a very serious matter when Americans are taken hostage along with others," Panetta told reporters in Rome, where he spent the day meeting with Italian leaders, in part to discuss the operations in Mali. "I want to assure the American people that the United States will take all necessary and proper steps that are required to deal with this situation."

Panetta told reporters in Italy that he was briefed Wednesday on the Algeria attack and said the U.S. is in consultation with the Algerians to determine what the situation is and what happened.

He said he did not know if the kidnappings were connected at all to the French military assault in Mali.

"I do know that terrorists are terrorists and terrorists take these kinds of actions," he added, "We've witnessed their behavior in a number of occasions where they have total disregard for innocent men and women. This appears to be that kind of situation."

Nuland said that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke Wednesday by telephone with Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal.

She also said the U.S. Embassy in Algiers issued an emergency message to American citizens encouraging them to review their personal safety.

"We're obviously taking the appropriate measures at the embassy as well," she told reporters.

U.S. authorities also were in contact with BP.

---

Baldor contributed to this report from Rome.

Quote from: ben says on January 17, 2013, 07:31:35 AM
^That wasn't a "former" colony. That was a current colony, at the time. Then they left, and we wanted it to be our colony.

Um... Ok...

QuoteGeneva Agreements

On 27 April 1954, the Geneva Conference produced the Geneva Agreements; supporting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Indochina, granting it independence from France, declaring the cessation of hostilities and foreign involvement in internal Indochina affairs, delineating northern and southern zones into which opposing troops were to withdraw, they mandated unification on the basis of internationally supervised free elections to be held in July 1956.[1] It also settled a number of outstanding disputes relating to the Korean War.[citation needed] It was at this conference that France relinquished any claim to territory in the Indochinese peninsula. Neither the U.S. nor South Vietnam signed the Geneva Accords. South Vietnamese leader Diem rejected the idea of nationwide election as proposed in the agreement, saying that a free election was impossible in the communist North and that his government was not bound by the Geneva Accords.

The events of 1954 marked the beginnings of serious United States involvement in Vietnam and the ensuing Vietnam War. Laos and Cambodia also became independent in 1954, but were both drawn into the Vietnam War.

Good article outlining past history and the current conflict...

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/01/15/al_qaeda_country

Quote
Al Qaeda Country

Why Mali matters.

BY PETER CHILSON |JANUARY 15, 2013

In 1893, in West Africa's upper Niger River basin -- what is now central Mali -- the French army achieved a victory that had eluded it for almost 50 years: the destruction of the jihadist Tukulor Empire, one of the last great challenges to France's rule in the region. The Tukulor Empire's first important conquest had come decades earlier, in the early 1850s, when its fanatical founder, El Hajj Umar Tall, led Koranic students and hardened soldiers to topple the Bambara kingdoms along the banks of the Niger. Umar imposed a strict brand of Islamic law, reportedly enslaving or killing tens of thousands of non-believers over a half century. He is said to have personally smashed to pieces captured idols, and once told a French officer he encountered at a well guarded fort to "Go back to your own country, accursed man." Umar traveled widely, prophesying the end of French rule and preaching about the paradise that awaits those who die by jihad. Killed in the explosion of a gunpowder cache in 1864, it still took almost three decades for the French to wrest control over the middle and upper reaches of the Niger River, including Timbuktu and much of the desert to the north.

Now, the jihadists are back and so are the French -- the two sides slugging it out over the same real estate they fought over 120 years ago. An alliance of jihadist groups, including Ansar Dine, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, have retaken Timbuktu and again threaten the area of the upper Niger and Senegal Rivers, where the French once built stone fortresses to fend off Umar's attacks. The forts are still there, long abandoned and crumbling along the riverbanks. Over the past 10 months, jihadist forces have re-established the rule of Islamic law across northern Mali, which encompasses around 200,000 square miles or 60 percent of the country. This is a place where teenage couples risk death by stoning if they hold hands in public.

If Mali feels somewhat far away or less than important, consider this: Northern Mali is currently the largest al Qaeda-controlled space in the world, an area a little larger than France itself. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that Mali could become a "permanent haven for terrorists and organized criminal networks." In December, Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command, warned that al Qaeda was using northern Mali as a training center and base for recruiting across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Jihadists operating in northern Mali have been linked to Boko Haram, the violent Islamist group based in northern Nigeria, and to Ansar al-Sharia, a group in Libya which has been linked to the attack on the U.S. consulate at Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Until last week, Mali appeared to be in a state of semi-permanent standoff, split between the jihadists in the north, and what remained of the Malian army and government in the south. But a sudden jihadist advance into the south shattered the fragile equilibrium, drawing France into the fray. On Jan. 10, jihadist rebels overran the strategic central Malian village of Konna, then the northernmost outpost under government control. The rebel forces had been spotted leaving Timbuktu days earlier in a long column of some 100 vehicles and 900 rebel soldiers.

For the French, the fall of Konna proved not only that the Malian army has not recovered from its March defeat by Tuareg rebels and jihadists in the north, but also that it cannot protect the rest of the country. Faced with this reality, the French launched an air campaign to drive the jihadists back, and dispatched ground troops -- soon to number 2,500 -- to secure Mali's capital, Bamako, and to reinforce Malian army positions bordering the north. By Jan. 12, French airstrikes had driven the jihadist rebels out of Konna.

The French government has repeatedly said that the Malian government asked for its help after the fall of Konna. But there is also a less selfless reason for Paris's urgency: fear that a growing al Qaeda presence in West Africa will make France itself more vulnerable to terrorist attack. French President Francois Hollande said as much on Monday, warning that the jihadist groups in Mali pose a threat that "goes well beyond Mali, in Africa and perhaps beyond."

France's decision to lead the intervention in Mali ended months of handwringing over how to implement the Dec. 20 U.N. Security Council Resolution, which established an ill-defined "Mali Support Mission." The resolution approved a force of 3,300 African troops to be raised from Mali's neighbors -- mainly Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Niger, as well as Togo, Benin, and Ivory Coast -- which were expected to take on the rebels toward the end of 2013. But the resolution provided no timetable for an invasion of the north and no way to pay for it or to equip and train the African troops. France and the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have been slowly securing help from Britain, Germany, and the United States for training and logistics help. But the fall of Konna and fresh worries about the vulnerability of the rest of Mali to jihadist takeover forced the hands of both France and ECOWAS.

Now French troops are in Mali and troops from Mali's neighbors began arriving in Bamako this week, though it's still not clear how or when the African troops will go into action. France's ambassador in London, Bernard Emié, told the BBC on Monday that the African troops still require training and equipment. The jihadists, meanwhile, have counterattacked, taking another village in Segou province -- one of the first regions the Tukulor Empire conquered 165 years ago -- and pushing to within 300 miles of the capital. France's military action will test just how strong the jihadists are. According to French and U.S. officials, they are both well-trained and heavily armed, having captured equipment from the Malian army last spring and acquired additional weapons from Libya, itself awash in weapons after the fall of Muammar al-Qaddafi. The officials say al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is also well funded, having raised around $100 million from kidnappings in Mali in recent years, including the kidnapping of a Frenchman near Mali's border with Mauritania in November 2012.

Mali today is a country of surprising reversals and disappointments. The splintering of the country began with a Tuareg rebellion in January 2011, the fifth such uprising since 1960. But the Tuaregs' push to establish their own state was derailed last summer by jihadist groups who were better organized and funded -- and the Tuaregs have since offered their support for the Malian government's struggle to drive the jihadists from the north. The uprising also led to the demise of Mali's 20 year-old democracy, when in March junior army officers unhappy with the government's inept handling of the Tuareg situation launched  a coup d'état. The resulting chaos led to the collapse of Mali's army in the north, aided by the defection of entire Malian army units of Tuareg commanders and soldiers. In May, the junta in Bamako barely survived a second coup attempt by a paratrooper regiment loyal to the deposed civilian government. Days later, a mob of boys and young men stormed the presidential palace and beat up the junta's own puppet civilian president. Since then, the Malian junta and its civilian front men have waffled on accepting foreign military aid to oust the jihadists, insisting with wounded pride that the army can do the job itself.

Last May, I visited Col. Didier Dacko, commander of what remained of Mali's army, at the largest Malian army base along the border with the north. I asked him to respond to a quote I'd gotten from a Western diplomat in Bamako, who told me the Malian army has never been strong. "It is an army of farmers," the diplomat had said. Dacko shrugged when I read him the quote and replied, "Malians are not used to instability."

And he's right. Mali has been at peace since 1893 and now the jihadists have returned to stir the national memory. For the moment, Malians in the south seem to welcome the French intervention, though the legacy of colonialism has left many West Africans skeptical of just about anything Paris does. To this day, for example, many in West Africa and in Mali remember El Hajj Umar Tall not as a jihadist, but as an anti colonial crusader. It's hard to imagine French troops would be welcome for very long in Mali or anywhere. And the jihadists want to reinforce that point.

"France has opened the gates of hell," one Islamist leader in Mali, Oumar Ould Hamahar, a member of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, told Europe 1 radio in a phone interview in response to the French bombing campaign. "It has fallen into a trap much more dangerous than Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia."

France has promised to stay in Mali until the country is stable again, but Paris has said that it wants to position African troops to do the heavy work of dislodging the jihadists from the north. Still, France may be unable to avoid a long engagement with its own military forces right out front. A French armored column has already rolled out of Bamako, headed for the north. Even with air strikes -- there have been more than 50 so far -- and French troops on the ground it will still be some time before an African force is ready for a major push. Taking back Mali's northern cities, such as Timbuktu, Gao, and Kidal, may be the easiest task. Mali's vast northern desert is a hard place to live, not to mention wage war. For eight months a year, the daytime temperature exceeds 120 degrees Fahrenheit in a vast and unpopulated land that is easy to hide in, especially for the jihadist forces who know the territory well. Any army, no matter how large and well equipped, will have a tough time driving them out.

For now, it appears as if a piece of El Hajj Umar Tall's empire has survived after all.

Quote from: BridgeTroll on January 17, 2013, 06:57:59 AM

Quote from: Adam W on January 16, 2013, 05:01:55 PM

Quote from: BridgeTroll on January 16, 2013, 01:36:01 PM
We have already committed transports and tankers... when was the last time we helped out the French with one of their former colonies?

As a general rule, we don't help the French out with their former colonies, unless you count humanitarian aid - although we did provide some military assistance in Syria, apparently.

True... especially after the "help" we provided in French Indochina...

Yeah, I figured you were getting at Vietnam. The French tend to take care of themselves - they didn't ask for help in Algeria or Chad, for example.

But in Vietnam, we gave money and arms initially, but didn't bother becoming involved in the war effort (as in boots on the ground) until after the French had left and we certainly weren't doing anything then to help out the French at that point.

I don't see Mali going that way, but who knows. All this is part of the so-called 'Global War on Terror' anyway. This is what the Republican Party brought to us when they illegally invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.

And as I recall, most Americans cheered us on to war in both of those instances - and lest we forget, that includes Iraq, which is now unpopular. But most everyone seemed to think Iraq was a good idea at the time. So when people start to complain about Barack Obama (or our "Dear Leader" as another poster called him), you can look in the mirror and ask yourself honestly how you felt when all that shock and awe nonsense was playing out on television. And if you supported it, then I suggest you tone down the rhetoric a bit.

Not you, BT... but the royal "you." Because those of us who vocally opposed the war in Iraq were branded traitors and insulted and told to leave the country, etc etc etc. And so it's hard to forget that.

Quote from: Adam W on January 17, 2013, 08:30:06 AM

Quote from: BridgeTroll on January 17, 2013, 06:57:59 AM

Quote from: Adam W on January 16, 2013, 05:01:55 PM

Quote from: BridgeTroll on January 16, 2013, 01:36:01 PM
We have already committed transports and tankers... when was the last time we helped out the French with one of their former colonies?

As a general rule, we don't help the French out with their former colonies, unless you count humanitarian aid - although we did provide some military assistance in Syria, apparently.

True... especially after the "help" we provided in French Indochina...

Yeah, I figured you were getting at Vietnam. The French tend to take care of themselves - they didn't ask for help in Algeria or Chad, for example.

But in Vietnam, we gave money and arms initially, but didn't bother becoming involved in the war effort (as in boots on the ground) until after the French had left and we certainly weren't doing anything then to help out the French at that point.

I don't see Mali going that way, but who knows. All this is part of the so-called 'Global War on Terror' anyway. This is what the Republican Party brought to us when they illegally invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.

And as I recall, most Americans cheered us on to war in both of those instances - and lest we forget, that includes Iraq, which is now unpopular. But most everyone seemed to think Iraq was a good idea at the time. So when people start to complain about Barack Obama (or our "Dear Leader" as another poster called him), you can look in the mirror and ask yourself honestly how you felt when all that shock and awe nonsense was playing out on television. And if you supported it, then I suggest you tone down the rhetoric a bit.

Not you, BT... but the royal "you." Because those of us who vocally opposed the war in Iraq were branded traitors and insulted and told to leave the country, etc etc etc. And so it's hard to forget that.

What rhetoric are you suggesting I tone down?  I have simply been providing information.  We will soon know more about Mali, ECOWAS, Bamako, Ansar Dine, etc than most of us ever would have previously cared about.  It is quite possible NATO as an organization will become involved here... The taking of American hostages could quickly involve "boots on the ground".

Looks like they killed the hosatges...  >:(

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/01/201311713160194432.html

Quote
Dozens of hostages 'killed' in Algeria

Thirty-four hostages and 15 kidnappers reportedly killed, a day after Western and Algerian gas field workers are seized.
Last Modified: 17 Jan 2013 15:27


Thirty-four hostages and 15 kidnappers have been killed in southern Algeria, according to the group holding the hostages.

Thursday's reported deaths came a day after dozens of foreigners and Algerians were taken hostage by heavily armed fighters near the In Amenas gas field.

The fighters said they seized the hostages in retaliation for Algeria letting France use its airspace to launch operations against rebels in northern Mali.

The spokesman for the Masked Brigade, which had claimed responsibility for the abductions on Wednesday, told Mauritanian ANI news agency that the deaths were a result of an Algerian government helicopter attack on a convoy transporting hostages and kidnappers.

A local source confirmed to Reuters news agency that six foreign hostages and eight fighters were killed. The source said some hostages were still being held, and 180 Algerian citizens had escaped.

The official Algerian APS news agency later said the army had freed four foreign hostages: two Britons, a Frenchman and a Kenyan.

The Irish foreign ministry said an Irish man had also been freed.

Refusal to negotiate

Algerian media, citing officials, reported that 15 foreigners and 30 Algerians had managed to escape.

The Masked Brigade spokesman said Abou el-Baraa, the leader of the kidnappers, was among those killed in the helicopter attack. He said the fighters would kill the rest of their captives if the army approached.

Algeria has refused to negotiate with what it says is a band of about 20 fighters.

ANI, which has been in constant contact with the al-Qaeda-affiliated kidnappers, said seven hostages were still being held: two Americans, three Belgians, one Japanese and one British citizen.

Norwegians, French and Irish citizens were also among those taken hostage.

A Briton was among two people killed on Wednesday, after fighters launched an ambush of a bus carrying employees from the gas plant to the nearby airport.

The In Amenas gas field is jointly operated by British oil giant BP, Norway's Statoil and Algeria's Sonatrach.

BP said in a statement on Thursday that "sadly, there have been some reports of casualties but we are still lacking any confirmed or reliable information. There are also reports of hostages being released or escaping."

France launched a major offensive against the rebel group Ansar al-Dine in Mali on January 11 to prevent them from advancing on the capital, Bamako.

Algeria had long warned against military intervention against the rebels, fearing the violence could spill over the border.

Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan, following the hostage situation from London, said Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has allied himself with the West in the fight against al-Qaeda.

"As recently as last year it seemed that he was turning the last stronghold of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the mountains up in the north where the Berber people are natives, against those Arabs that have been coming in from outside," he said. "The Algerian authorities have been enjoying significant successes in targeting al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb leaders."

This is a sad 10,000th post...

Stephen -

Regarding this: "But I think it would be incorrect to claim that American involvement in Viet Nam came as a result of our hopes to be imperial masters of Indochina."

I never made that claim. I don't think the  motivation for US involvement in Vietnam was as simple as that.

Pretty spot on Stephen, the one thing even fairly well versed armchair historians miss is the French Indochina was under Vichy French rule at the outset of WWII.  When the Japanese army needed a springboard for their colony quest in the deep South Pacific, the Vichy's gladly surrendered their administration to Japan.  Other French possessions among the South Pacific islands were under General Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle was m/l in exile in England, running what was left of the French Army after Hitler was through with it. This really set up a bad situation.

Quote from: BridgeTroll on January 17, 2013, 08:56:55 AM

Quote from: Adam W on January 17, 2013, 08:30:06 AM

Quote from: BridgeTroll on January 17, 2013, 06:57:59 AM

Quote from: Adam W on January 16, 2013, 05:01:55 PM

Quote from: BridgeTroll on January 16, 2013, 01:36:01 PM
We have already committed transports and tankers... when was the last time we helped out the French with one of their former colonies?

As a general rule, we don't help the French out with their former colonies, unless you count humanitarian aid - although we did provide some military assistance in Syria, apparently.

True... especially after the "help" we provided in French Indochina...

Yeah, I figured you were getting at Vietnam. The French tend to take care of themselves - they didn't ask for help in Algeria or Chad, for example.

But in Vietnam, we gave money and arms initially, but didn't bother becoming involved in the war effort (as in boots on the ground) until after the French had left and we certainly weren't doing anything then to help out the French at that point.

I don't see Mali going that way, but who knows. All this is part of the so-called 'Global War on Terror' anyway. This is what the Republican Party brought to us when they illegally invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.

And as I recall, most Americans cheered us on to war in both of those instances - and lest we forget, that includes Iraq, which is now unpopular. But most everyone seemed to think Iraq was a good idea at the time. So when people start to complain about Barack Obama (or our "Dear Leader" as another poster called him), you can look in the mirror and ask yourself honestly how you felt when all that shock and awe nonsense was playing out on television. And if you supported it, then I suggest you tone down the rhetoric a bit.

Not you, BT... but the royal "you." Because those of us who vocally opposed the war in Iraq were branded traitors and insulted and told to leave the country, etc etc etc. And so it's hard to forget that.

What rhetoric are you suggesting I tone down?

^^^I meant to address that when I posted "Not you, BT... but the royal "you." Sorry for any confusion.

Quote from: Ocklawaha on January 17, 2013, 12:25:16 PM
Pretty spot on Stephen, the one thing even fairly well versed armchair historians miss is the French Indochina was under Vichy French rule at the outset of WWII. 

Sez the armchair historian   ;)

Quote from: Adam W on January 17, 2013, 01:30:08 PM

Quote from: Ocklawaha on January 17, 2013, 12:25:16 PM
Pretty spot on Stephen, the one thing even fairly well versed armchair historians miss is the French Indochina was under Vichy French rule at the outset of WWII. 

Sez the armchair historian   ;)

You corrections would be most welcome.

Quote from: BridgeTroll on January 17, 2013, 08:12:16 AM
Good article outlining past history and the current conflict...

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/01/15/al_qaeda_country

Quote
Al Qaeda Country

Why Mali matters.

BY PETER CHILSON |JANUARY 15, 2013

In 1893, in West Africa's upper Niger River basin -- what is now central Mali -- the French army achieved a victory that had eluded it for almost 50 years: the destruction of the jihadist Tukulor Empire, one of the last great challenges to France's rule in the region. The Tukulor Empire's first important conquest had come decades earlier, in the early 1850s, when its fanatical founder, El Hajj Umar Tall, led Koranic students and hardened soldiers to topple the Bambara kingdoms along the banks of the Niger. Umar imposed a strict brand of Islamic law, reportedly enslaving or killing tens of thousands of non-believers over a half century. He is said to have personally smashed to pieces captured idols, and once told a French officer he encountered at a well guarded fort to "Go back to your own country, accursed man." Umar traveled widely, prophesying the end of French rule and preaching about the paradise that awaits those who die by jihad. Killed in the explosion of a gunpowder cache in 1864, it still took almost three decades for the French to wrest control over the middle and upper reaches of the Niger River, including Timbuktu and much of the desert to the north.

Now, the jihadists are back and so are the French -- the two sides slugging it out over the same real estate they fought over 120 years ago. An alliance of jihadist groups, including Ansar Dine, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, have retaken Timbuktu and again threaten the area of the upper Niger and Senegal Rivers, where the French once built stone fortresses to fend off Umar's attacks. The forts are still there, long abandoned and crumbling along the riverbanks. Over the past 10 months, jihadist forces have re-established the rule of Islamic law across northern Mali, which encompasses around 200,000 square miles or 60 percent of the country. This is a place where teenage couples risk death by stoning if they hold hands in public.

If Mali feels somewhat far away or less than important, consider this: Northern Mali is currently the largest al Qaeda-controlled space in the world, an area a little larger than France itself. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that Mali could become a "permanent haven for terrorists and organized criminal networks." In December, Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command, warned that al Qaeda was using northern Mali as a training center and base for recruiting across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Jihadists operating in northern Mali have been linked to Boko Haram, the violent Islamist group based in northern Nigeria, and to Ansar al-Sharia, a group in Libya which has been linked to the attack on the U.S. consulate at Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Until last week, Mali appeared to be in a state of semi-permanent standoff, split between the jihadists in the north, and what remained of the Malian army and government in the south. But a sudden jihadist advance into the south shattered the fragile equilibrium, drawing France into the fray. On Jan. 10, jihadist rebels overran the strategic central Malian village of Konna, then the northernmost outpost under government control. The rebel forces had been spotted leaving Timbuktu days earlier in a long column of some 100 vehicles and 900 rebel soldiers.

For the French, the fall of Konna proved not only that the Malian army has not recovered from its March defeat by Tuareg rebels and jihadists in the north, but also that it cannot protect the rest of the country. Faced with this reality, the French launched an air campaign to drive the jihadists back, and dispatched ground troops -- soon to number 2,500 -- to secure Mali's capital, Bamako, and to reinforce Malian army positions bordering the north. By Jan. 12, French airstrikes had driven the jihadist rebels out of Konna.

The French government has repeatedly said that the Malian government asked for its help after the fall of Konna. But there is also a less selfless reason for Paris's urgency: fear that a growing al Qaeda presence in West Africa will make France itself more vulnerable to terrorist attack. French President Francois Hollande said as much on Monday, warning that the jihadist groups in Mali pose a threat that "goes well beyond Mali, in Africa and perhaps beyond."

France's decision to lead the intervention in Mali ended months of handwringing over how to implement the Dec. 20 U.N. Security Council Resolution, which established an ill-defined "Mali Support Mission." The resolution approved a force of 3,300 African troops to be raised from Mali's neighbors -- mainly Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Niger, as well as Togo, Benin, and Ivory Coast -- which were expected to take on the rebels toward the end of 2013. But the resolution provided no timetable for an invasion of the north and no way to pay for it or to equip and train the African troops. France and the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have been slowly securing help from Britain, Germany, and the United States for training and logistics help. But the fall of Konna and fresh worries about the vulnerability of the rest of Mali to jihadist takeover forced the hands of both France and ECOWAS.

Now French troops are in Mali and troops from Mali's neighbors began arriving in Bamako this week, though it's still not clear how or when the African troops will go into action. France's ambassador in London, Bernard Emié, told the BBC on Monday that the African troops still require training and equipment. The jihadists, meanwhile, have counterattacked, taking another village in Segou province -- one of the first regions the Tukulor Empire conquered 165 years ago -- and pushing to within 300 miles of the capital. France's military action will test just how strong the jihadists are. According to French and U.S. officials, they are both well-trained and heavily armed, having captured equipment from the Malian army last spring and acquired additional weapons from Libya, itself awash in weapons after the fall of Muammar al-Qaddafi. The officials say al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is also well funded, having raised around $100 million from kidnappings in Mali in recent years, including the kidnapping of a Frenchman near Mali's border with Mauritania in November 2012.

Mali today is a country of surprising reversals and disappointments. The splintering of the country began with a Tuareg rebellion in January 2011, the fifth such uprising since 1960. But the Tuaregs' push to establish their own state was derailed last summer by jihadist groups who were better organized and funded -- and the Tuaregs have since offered their support for the Malian government's struggle to drive the jihadists from the north. The uprising also led to the demise of Mali's 20 year-old democracy, when in March junior army officers unhappy with the government's inept handling of the Tuareg situation launched  a coup d'état. The resulting chaos led to the collapse of Mali's army in the north, aided by the defection of entire Malian army units of Tuareg commanders and soldiers. In May, the junta in Bamako barely survived a second coup attempt by a paratrooper regiment loyal to the deposed civilian government. Days later, a mob of boys and young men stormed the presidential palace and beat up the junta's own puppet civilian president. Since then, the Malian junta and its civilian front men have waffled on accepting foreign military aid to oust the jihadists, insisting with wounded pride that the army can do the job itself.

Last May, I visited Col. Didier Dacko, commander of what remained of Mali's army, at the largest Malian army base along the border with the north. I asked him to respond to a quote I'd gotten from a Western diplomat in Bamako, who told me the Malian army has never been strong. "It is an army of farmers," the diplomat had said. Dacko shrugged when I read him the quote and replied, "Malians are not used to instability."

And he's right. Mali has been at peace since 1893 and now the jihadists have returned to stir the national memory. For the moment, Malians in the south seem to welcome the French intervention, though the legacy of colonialism has left many West Africans skeptical of just about anything Paris does. To this day, for example, many in West Africa and in Mali remember El Hajj Umar Tall not as a jihadist, but as an anti colonial crusader. It's hard to imagine French troops would be welcome for very long in Mali or anywhere. And the jihadists want to reinforce that point.

"France has opened the gates of hell," one Islamist leader in Mali, Oumar Ould Hamahar, a member of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, told Europe 1 radio in a phone interview in response to the French bombing campaign. "It has fallen into a trap much more dangerous than Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia."

France has promised to stay in Mali until the country is stable again, but Paris has said that it wants to position African troops to do the heavy work of dislodging the jihadists from the north. Still, France may be unable to avoid a long engagement with its own military forces right out front. A French armored column has already rolled out of Bamako, headed for the north. Even with air strikes -- there have been more than 50 so far -- and French troops on the ground it will still be some time before an African force is ready for a major push. Taking back Mali's northern cities, such as Timbuktu, Gao, and Kidal, may be the easiest task. Mali's vast northern desert is a hard place to live, not to mention wage war. For eight months a year, the daytime temperature exceeds 120 degrees Fahrenheit in a vast and unpopulated land that is easy to hide in, especially for the jihadist forces who know the territory well. Any army, no matter how large and well equipped, will have a tough time driving them out.

For now, it appears as if a piece of El Hajj Umar Tall's empire has survived after all.

Very nice overview. Thanks, BT.

http://www.youtube.com/v/W7VBGFnq9ME

(http://cdn2.spiegel.de/images/image-453611-galleryV9-ustq.jpg)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-lawless-sahel-offers-a-vast-sanctuary-to-islamist-extremists-a-880056.html

Quote'Darker Sides': The Vast Islamist Sanctuary of 'Sahelistan'

By Paul Hyacinthe Mben, Jan Puhl and Thilo Thielke

There is an old church in the Niger River town of Diabaly. It was built in the days when Mali was still a colony known as French Sudan. The stone cross on the gable of the church had never bothered anyone since the French left 50 years ago and Mali became independent, even though some 90 percent of Malians are Muslim.

Now, what is left of the cross lies scattered on the ground. For the Islamists who overran Diabaly two weeks ago, bringing down the stone symbol was worth a bazooka round. They also smashed the altar and toppled wooden statuettes of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.

But their reign of terror in Diabaly lasted only a few days -- until the French returned. Acting on orders of French President François Hollande, French troops fired on the Islamists' pickup trucks from the air, striking them one at a time with apparent surgical precision. According to local residents, not a single civilian died in the airstrikes.

By Tuesday morning, the last of the extremist fighters had disappeared into the bush, fleeing on foot in small groups, likely headed north.

The church has been declared off-limits, for fear that it may have been booby-trapped by the Islamists. But the colonel in charge of the French troops in the area, a muscular man with close-cropped hair, says proudly: "Diabaly is safe again."

France's advance northward continued through the weekend, with the military announcing they had seized control of both Gao and, on Monday morning, Timbuktu. Just as they had in Diabaly, the Islamists melted away in front of the advancing force. But they will not disappear entirely.

Larger than All of Europe

Northern Mali is just one part of the vast hinterland in which the Islamists can hide. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius refers to the rocky and sandy desert, spanning 7,500 kilometers (about 4,700 miles) from Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east, as "Sahelistan." The Sahel zone is larger than all of Europe and so impassable that no power in the world can fully control it. The French have deployed all of 2,400 troops to the region, the Germans have contributed two transport planes.

Sahelistan is the new front in the global fight against violent Islamists. Should other countries -- Germany or Britain, for example -- join the French with ground troops, it is quite possible that the West will become just as entrenched there as it has in the other front against global terror: Afghanistan.

The Sahel zone is a lawless region. It begins in the southern part of the Maghreb region of North Africa, where the power of the Arab countries begins to fade, and where the already weak sub-Saharan countries like Mali, Niger and Chad were never able to gain a foothold. It is a no-man's land honeycombed with smugglers' roads and drug routes, an El Dorado for the lawless and fanatics.

The war has become increasingly brutal. Although an Islamist faction from Kidal in northern Mali announced on Wednesday that it was willing to negotiate, there was also news of atrocities committed by the Malian army, which reportedly killed at least 30 people as it advanced northward. Eyewitnesses say that people were shot to death at the bus terminal in the central Malian town of Sévaré. An army lieutenant made no secret of his hatred for the insurgents, saying: "They were Islamists. We're killing them. If we don't they will kill us."

After the Arab spring and the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, many hoped that terrorism could finally be drawing to a close. But even former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi once predicted that chaos and holy war would erupt if he were toppled. "Bin Laden's people would take over the country," Gadhafi said.

Now it is becoming apparent that his prophecy applies to even larger swathes of the desert. The crisis in northern Mali and the ensuing bloodbath at the natural gas plant in Algeria are only two indications. In northern Niger, Islamists are targeting white foreigners, hoping to kidnap them and extort ransom money. In northern Nigeria, fighters with the Islamist sect Boko Haram attacked yet another town last week. They shot and killed 18 people, including a number of hunters who had been selling game there, and then disappeared again. Muslims consider the flesh of bush animals to be impure.

'One of the Darker Sides'

On Sept. 11 of last year, Islamists murdered US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three embassy employees in the Libyan city of Benghazi. Last Thursday, Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands withdrew their citizens from Libya, fearing new attacks.

In Sudan's embattled Darfur region, militias hired by the Islamist junta were harassing the local population until recently. And in Somalia, Kenyan and Ugandan soldiers are trying to drive back the fundamentalist Al-Shabaab militants.

Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group referred to it as "one of the darker sides of the Arab uprisings," in a recent conversation with the New York Times. "Their peaceful nature may have damaged al-Qaida and its allies ideologically, but logistically, in terms of the new porousness of borders, the expansion of ungoverned areas, the proliferation of weapons, the disorganization of police and security services in all these countries -- it's been a real boon to jihadists."

Islamism in the Sahel zone is backward and modern at the same time, ideologically rigid and perversely pragmatic. In Timbuktu, fanatics are cutting off the hands and heads of criminals, and yet the Islamists have become wealthy by taking over the cocaine and weapons business, as well as human trafficking operations.

Sahelistan's new masters are forging alliances with local insurgents and internationally operating jihadists. In Mali, they took over the unrecognized state of Azawad, formed after a Tuareg rebellion in April 2012 -- a relatively easy task, after many Tuareg switched sides and joined the ranks of the Islamists. Ansar Dine, the largest Islamist group with its roughly 1,500 fighters, consists largely of Tuareg tribesmen.

After Islamists had captured the Malian city of Gao in June 2012, journalist Malick Aliou Maïga observed delegations of bearded men going to see the new rulers almost daily. "They were supporters from Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Qatar. They were bringing money."

Cynical Political Opportunist

Al-Qaida and its splinter groups in Sahelistan are no longer under the command of a charismatic leader like Osama bin Laden. Instead, they have many commanders, including ruthless fighters like Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who is held responsible for the attack at the In Amenas natural gas plant, the largest terrorist incident since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. In Mali, there is Ansar Dine leader Iyad Ag Ghaly, a cynical political opportunist.

These people pose an enormous threat in West Africa. Neighboring countries like Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast have only recently emerged from civil wars and could plunge back into chaos at any time. It stands to reason that members of the West African economic community ECOWAS were the first to join France by deploying troops to Mali, beginning with a contingent of 1,750 soldiers.

General Carter Ham, commander of the US Army's Africa Command, told the Telegraph that the "growing linkage, network collaboration, organization and synchronization" among the various terrorist groups in the region is what "poses the greatest threat to regional stability and ultimately to Europe."

Only one border separates Mali's extremists from the Mediterranean, the 1,376-kilometer border between Mali and Algeria. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 75, still controls Algeria with an iron fist. Nevertheless, Algeria is the birthplace of Salafism in the Maghreb region, the radical Muslim school of thought that many extremist groups, including Al-Qaida, invoke today.

In the late 1980s, the regime permitted the first Islamist party in the region, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). When the FIS seemed headed for victory in the 1991 elections, there was a military coup. The FIS then went underground and fought a brutal war of terror against Algiers that claimed up to 200,000 lives.

The combatants who became radicalized at the time include Abdelmalek Droukdel, born in northern Algeria in 1970. As an adolescent, Droukdel joined the mujahedin and fought the Soviets in Afghanistan. Upon his return, Droukdel and others formed the "Salafist Group for Call and Combat," which is now called "Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb" (AQIM). The group has long since moved beyond its original goal of overthrowing the government in Algiers. Instead, its leaders dream of establishing a caliphate across all of Sahelistan.

Not Particularly Successful

Droukdel's fiercest adversary is the Algerian intelligence chief, Mohammed Mediène, trained by the KGB in the former Soviet Union. He has headed the fight against the Islamists for years and takes an unrelenting approach that categorically excludes negotiating with terrorists.

Mediène is a difficult partner for the West. He was likely the one responsible for ordering the Algerian army to storm the natural gas plant in the desert in the week before last. Algerian special forces opened fire on the terrorists, despite the risk to the lives of hundreds of hostages. The assault ended in the deaths of about 40 foreign hostages.

In the other countries of the Sahel zone, however, regular military forces tend to be on the losing end against Islamist insurgents. A year ago, the Ansar Dine extremists overran the Malian army within only a few weeks. The troops in the region are all as weak and corrupt as the countries that deploy them. They are poorly equipped and the soldiers suffer from poor morale, partly because the men must often wait months for their pay.

The US is seeking to arm the countries in the region to combat the threat from the desert with a secret US government program called "Creek Sand." Washington has stationed small aircraft in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, and at various other strategically important locations in the region. The Pilatus PC-12 aircraft are unarmed but filled with state-of-the-art surveillance technology. The information they gather as they fly over the desert is meant to help local military leaders in the hunt for terrorists, but the program has not been particularly successful thus far.

Whether brutal military action, such as that which took place in Algeria, will deter Islamists is also disputed. The countries of Sahelistan are among the poorest in the world, and the region is regularly plagued by famine. "A young person from there has no chance of leading a good life," says deposed Malian President Amadou Touré.

'You Don't Even Recognize Them'

The terrorists, on the other hand, are comparatively well off, offering young men a monthly salary of about â,¬90 ($121). Each recruit also receives a Kalashnikov, daily meals and a modicum of power over the rest of the population.

Shortly after recruitment, the new fighters are sent to training camps called Katibas, many of them in northern Mali and along the eastern border with Mauritania. In addition to receiving training with machine guns and hand grenades, the recruits also study the Koran. "You don't even recognize them when they come back from there," says a Tuareg tribesman in Bamako.

Experts say that the Islamist fighters in Mali are generally better equipped and better fed than government soldiers. They have rocket-propelled grenades, SA-7 rockets and other modern weaponry. Their main weapons are the poor man's tanks known as "technicals" -- pickup trucks with heavy machine guns mounted on the bed, and bags of ammunition hanging off the sides for the fighters on foot.

After the collapse of the Libyan regime, most of the weapons and ammunition were stolen from Gadhafi's weapons stores, mostly by the dictator's former Tuareg mercenaries. Fresh supplies of ordnance aren't a problem either, now that Africa's Islamists are hoarding many millions of dollars.

A little over three years ago, Malian police officers made a strange discovery in northern Mali: a Boeing 727, parked in the middle of the desert, without seats but apparently equipped for carrying cargo. It was found that the plane was registered in Guinea-Bissau and had taken off from Venezuela.

The find confirmed the authorities' fears that South American cocaine cartels are sending large quantities of drugs to West Africa, sometimes using aircraft. Gangs that cooperate with the Islamists then take the drugs to the Mediterranean region. The business is said to have generated billions in profits.

'Throats Are Slit Like Chickens'

Kidnappings are the Islamists' second financing mainstay. "Many Western countries pay enormous sums to jihadists," scoffs Omar Ould Hamaha, an Islamist commander who feels so safe in the western Sahara that he can sometimes even be reached by phone. Experts estimate that AQIM has raked in â,¬100 million in ransom money in recent years.

About half of the kidnappings have ended violently. Boko Haram terrorists murdered a German engineer in northern Nigeria a year ago, and French engineers are often targeted. France depends on Niger for uranium and the state-owned nuclear conglomerate Areva is mining there on a large scale. It's impossible to completely protect Areva's employees. Two years ago, kidnappers even ventured into the dusty Nigerien capital Niamey, where they kidnapped two Frenchmen from a restaurant.

For the victims, being kidnapped usually marks the beginning of an ordeal lasting months or even years. To shake off pursuers, the Islamists constantly move their hostages across hundreds of kilometers of desert, either in the beds of their pickup trucks or in marches that can last weeks. Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler titled his book about his time in the hands of extremists "A Season in Hell."

Fowler was released in April 2009, after 130 days in captivity. Ottawa denies having paid ransom money. The Frenchmen kidnapped in Niamey, however, died when a French special forces unit tried to liberate them. "At the slightest sign of an attack, the prisoners throats are slit like chickens," says Islamist leader Hamaha.

At least seven European hostages are currently waiting somewhere in the desert to be rescued -- at least that's what security forces hope. Islamists have threatened to kill them all, as revenge for the air strikes France has now launched in Mali.

http://youtu.be/WkzXTgslFNE

I forgot the archaic method to embed here. Sorry. Click on the [cc] button to see English subtitles.

This is a Belgium MP speaking out against Mali "intervention".

He is certainly filled with conspiracies isnt he... :)

Good to know that other countries have clowns in their governments too.