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Mali: Britain prepared to send 'sizeable amount' of troops to support French
Guardian ^ | Monday 28 January 2013 | Nicholas Watt and Luke Harding in Sévaré

Posted on 01/29/2013 6:34:50 AM PST by Pan_Yan

David Cameron says UK will support French mission to drive Islamists out but insists forces will not engage in combat

Britain is prepared to take the risk of sending a "sizeable amount" of troops to Mali and neighbouring West African countries as David Cameron offers strong support to France in its operation to drive Islamist militants from its former colony.

As news emerged that insurgents retreating from Timbuktu had set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless historic manuscripts, Downing Street said the prime minister told François Hollande on Sunday night Britain was "keen" to provide further military assistance to France.

...

Britain has also sent one RAF Sentinel surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Senegal to help with the mission. The Guardian reported last week that a small number of British special forces soldiers were on the ground in Mali advising the French.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: africa; alqaeda; mali; uk
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To: wolfman23601

I agree...these places are ex-French colonies, let them sort it out.


21 posted on 01/29/2013 8:29:58 AM PST by Vanders9
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To: cuban leaf
Something is up.

My guess is the Islamic terrorists acquired Libyan chemical WMD thanks to Obama and Hillary. That wont ever be reported in Obama's media. The dynamic duo is losing Africa.

22 posted on 01/29/2013 1:15:19 PM PST by justa-hairyape
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To: texanred

I sincerely hope your reference to ‘Europe’ dosent include the UK.

I think we have shed more than our fair share of ‘blood and treasure’ in the last few years, dont you?.


23 posted on 01/29/2013 2:54:26 PM PST by the scotsman (i)
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To: stuartcr
It's not a question of that. This is not a good thing. It is a failure of US leadership.

The USA IS the major political power on the planet. YOU are the leaders of the West and the Free World. None of the other major western powers will involve themselves in a foreign escapade without (at least) the tacit approval of the Whitehouse. The fact that some of them ARE now taking the initiative in foreign affairs is not some great american triumph in forcing them to do their bit. It's a consequence of the Bumbler-in-Chief's erratic foreign policies. He over analyses situations, and can't seem to make his mind up. That weakens American prestige, it emboldens your enemies, confuses the neutral nations, and frustrates your allies.

Consider the Libyan crisis that got rid of Colonel Gaddaffi a bit back. The British signalled early on that they were ready to assist any US policy initiative in the area, much as they did in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the US administration said and did nothing. When the Brits put forward the idea of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent Gaddaffi bombing his own people, Hillary Clinton said loud and clear that the US was opposed to that, so the Brits backed off (of course). Then after a while, when the scale of what was happening became clear, Clinton backtracked and sent US warships in to evacuate civilians and show the flag. The administration vacillated and ummed and ahhed for WEEKS, and you just can't do that with fast-paced foreign affairs crises like that. Eventually Britain and French went ahead on their own, but precious time had been lost, and the West did not capitalise on the situation as well as they could and should have done. And now we have Islamists and extremists on the rise in North Africa.

This situation is nothing for Americans to cheer about. The Anglo-French initiative in Mali basically boils down to "we don't trust you to do the right thing any more".

24 posted on 01/31/2013 4:10:36 AM PST by Vanders9
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To: the scotsman

I thought the Brexit was fait-accompli.


25 posted on 01/31/2013 6:05:59 AM PST by texanred
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To: the scotsman

I thought the Brexit was fait-accompli.


26 posted on 01/31/2013 6:06:12 AM PST by texanred
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To: Vanders9

Yet it still got others to do something.


27 posted on 01/31/2013 6:08:48 AM PST by stuartcr ("I upraded my moral compass to a GPS, to keep up with the times.")
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To: Pan_Yan
David Cameron says UK will support French mission to drive Islamists out...

If you drive them out then they're just going to show up somewhere else. Why not just hunt them down and kill them? Problem solved.

28 posted on 01/31/2013 7:25:51 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: stuartcr

But that wasn’t by design. It wasnt BO saying loud and clear “It’s not our problem, you lot take the lead for a change”. He flat out didn’t do or say anything. He effectively sidelined the US by refusing to make a decision. How is that possibly commendable? You can’t make a virtue out of confusion and incompetence, even if there was a desirable side affect.


29 posted on 01/31/2013 11:12:21 PM PST by Vanders9
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To: Vanders9

Perhaps that’s the way he wanted it, to see what would be done.

No one said anything about it be commendable or not. I don’t think virtue has anything to do with the desirable side affect. Besides, when is anything a government does, virtuous?


30 posted on 02/01/2013 5:48:28 AM PST by stuartcr ("I upraded my moral compass to a GPS, to keep up with the times.")
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To: stuartcr
I think it's highly unlikely that BO was trying to force a result in that manner. As the saying goes, it's rarely wise to attribute to design what can be explained by stupidity.

It's not a question of the government being "virtuous", it's a question of them adequately discharging their duties and responsibilities. You're implying that it's a good thing that they muddled through a situation, abdicated their authority, refused to use power because of sloth and/or fear, and then get lauded for the one happy outcome (that they didn't plan for) out of the many failures caused by their indecision.

I think we can legitimately assert more is expected of elected representatives. Or it should be.

31 posted on 02/02/2013 4:43:27 AM PST by Vanders9
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