[Seizethecarp]

This NYT article is a non-stop put-down of Obama's Africom training program in Mali and its failure to stem the Islamist exploitation of the all of the newly available weaponry of the former Libyan army.

Apparently Malian elite special forces that the US military trained defected to the Islamists and seized a safe-haven months ago in the north from which they launched an effort to seize the rest of the country...including a lot of Frenchmen. France couldn't wait for Obama's go-slow Africom to react.

[Seizethecarp]

This was a top of the page story in the online NYT and A1 in the print version.

It makes Barry’s Africom strategy for the past four years seem like a total shambles...leading from behind!

[spetznaz]

Good for the French, and for the rest of the free world. The French have always had no qualms taking matters to the next level via stern action (which makes the usual internet memes of 'cheese eating surrender monkeys' quite obsolete ...that phrase is far more aptly descriptive of the British). The French have always had no problems getting their hands dirty, whether it is in Libya (where the performance of the Rafale and the Hammer LGB more or less led to the sale of the Rafale to India), in Cote d'Voire when things went south, and now in Mali (not to mention prior engagements, including some funny ones like sending frogmen to sink a GreenPeace ship that was protesting against French nuclear tests). The French also have the most draconian rules against Islamic fundamentalism in Europe, where judges have almost godlike powers against suspected zealots (compare this with British reluctance to even deport wanton criminals), and we saw how the French went ahead to bad hijabs and burkas.

Staying on point, action had to be taken in the area now, or else in another 7 years you'd be seeing a far more massive action (with the US now being forced to be involved) as Mali, and the surrounding region, becomes a super-charged, pre-911, Afghanistan. The French are doing the world a favor. If the situation was given another 5-7 years you would see a situation that would require far more extensive 'action,' and the end-play would either be something similar to Afghanistan or, dare I say, Viet Nam ...which began in a similar manner come think of it.

Right now the Islamic rebels running amok in Mali are mostly gun-totting brigands that can easily be routed by an advanced army. If they are given the time to take over the entire country, and to liaise and integrate with other Islamic groups within and without Africa (e.g. Boko Haram in Nigeria, and Al Queda proper elsewhere), and to meld into the populace, it will be much harder to rout them.

The French are doing a good job. Far better than the Brits, who, according to the Daily Mail, have Labour MPs saying that assisting the French may attract terrorist attacks on the UK! As if the terrorists would refuse to attach London, given the chance, whether or not the Brits stepped in or not.

[Cronos]

Mali is a perfect example of flawed colonial boundaries

The northern portions are completely Tuareg and have been for centuries.

They shouldn't have been coupled with the south who are black Africans.

from wikipedia:

[piasa]

Now, in the face of longstanding American warnings that a Western assault on the Islamist stronghold could rally jihadists around the world and prompt terrorist attacks as far away as Europe,

This administration seems fixated on the suicidally stupid idea that jihadists need "provoking," as if jihadists will be peaceful so long as they are not "provoked."

The last time it only took a video to provoke them according to the administration, which has been acting utterly clueless that jihadis jihad, it's what they do, no outside trigger needed.

[ApplegateRanch]

But as insurgents swept through the desert last year, commanders of this nation’s elite army units, the fruit of years of careful American training, defected when they were needed most — taking troops, guns, trucks and their newfound skills to the enemy in the heat of battle, according to senior Malian military officials.

"So long, and thanks for the logisitcs support, Infidel dogs!"

[Truth29]

Another way of looking at this is that Obama armed and trained Islamic terrorists are being routed by French troops and air power. Obama has armed Muslim terrorists throughout North Africa and the Middle East through his Benghazi operation and, in this case, even provided technical support and training. Obama has been working tirelessly to spread Muslim terrorism and trying to establish the Greater Caliphate. Socialist France is causing him a problem, Mon Dieu!

[driftless2]

How many libs who angrily protested American “unilateral” military involvement in Mideast problems are shrugging their shoulders when the French take out the trash? When are we going to hear the lefties shout that France invaded Mali for oil?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

WSJ reported last week that the ammo used by the Muzzies was produced and supplied by Iran.