Where the Hell is Mali?

[BridgeTroll]

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

Hollande'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.

[BridgeTroll]

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

US 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.

[copperfiend]

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

The life expectancy in Mali is 49.

[fsquid]

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

[copperfiend]

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.

[Wacca Pilatka]

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

[BridgeTroll]

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

Al-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.

[civil42806]

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

Al-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!

[ben says]

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

[BridgeTroll]

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

Wow...
anyway...

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.

[Adam W]

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.

[Ocklawaha]

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.

[Ocklawaha]

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. 

[Jack]

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

[If_I_Loved_you]

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?