“Mali is a big place. 3,500 French troops in a country twice the size of Texas with a population over 15 million isn’t a lot of firepower. It’s pretty unlikely they’ll be able to root Al Qaeda out of there.”
It also depends on other factors, such as the performance of the Malian army and the support or lack thereof of the local population.
There is no such thing as the “Malian Army”, and the local population has been hostile to the Federal authorities for much longer than the French colonialists first foray in to the country several hundred years ago.
This raid was equivalent to Clinton ordering multimillion dollar cruise missiles to hit empty tents in the desert at least three days after the AQ guys had left the region.
The tail wags the dog, and Freepers are once again getting suckered into this hook, line and sinker.