[PapaBear3625]

Send our kids over there to be slaughtered by islamists.

Mali is 90% Muslim,1% Christian, and 9% "indigenous beliefs" according to the CIA Factbook. There really isn't a good side. I suspect the real conflict is tribal in nature.

[PapaBear3625]

Looking deeper into what I said, the al-Queda-dominated northern tribes of Mali are to a large extent light-skinned Berber/Arab types, like the Tuareg:

Meanwhile, the southern tribes of Mali are black. So the Mali conflict is to some extent a race war.