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Mali Islamists counter attack, promise France long war
Reuters ^ | Mon Jan 14, 2013 8:06am EST | Bate Felix and Alexandria Sage

Posted on 01/14/2013 6:41:56 AM PST by DeadFurrow

Al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels launched a counter-offensive on Monday in central Mali after four days of air strikes by French warplanes on their strongholds in the desert north, promising to drag France into a long and brutal Afghanistan-style ground war.

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; france; frenchtroops; mali
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1 posted on 01/14/2013 6:41:59 AM PST by DeadFurrow
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To: Cincinna

Gallic ping.


2 posted on 01/14/2013 6:48:00 AM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: DeadFurrow

France is in talks for a possible surrender. More news as it happens !


3 posted on 01/14/2013 6:50:55 AM PST by midway1 (Inside every liberal is an American trying to get out)
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To: DeadFurrow

Go French!!! Please make obama very unhappy!!!


4 posted on 01/14/2013 6:51:03 AM PST by no-to-illegals (Please God, Protect and Bless Our Men and Women in Uniform with Victory. Amen.)
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To: DeadFurrow

Street Without Joy part II.


5 posted on 01/14/2013 6:52:27 AM PST by TheRhinelander
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To: midway1
On interventions like this regular French army troops are not used. These will be French Forign Legion, and they are very tough hombres. Also the French are not as finicky about rules of engagement like we are.

Mali islamists have tied into something they will regret.

6 posted on 01/14/2013 6:55:53 AM PST by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: no-to-illegals
"Go French!!! Please make obama very unhappy!!!"

Yes, the French are fighting Muslim terrorists who were armed from Libyan depots via Obama's Benghazi's operation and directly by switching sides in Mali with US supplied equipment as well as with US technical support and training before they defected. This is another arm of Obama's support for Islamic transnational terrorism in Africa and the Middle East trying to establish the Greater Caliphate. Obama is a great Muslim leader and Hollande stands in his way. The world turned upside down.

7 posted on 01/14/2013 7:03:44 AM PST by Truth29
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To: midway1

If you read the history of France you will discover a long history of military excellence along with a few major defeats. Sadly the French officer core in WW1 was terrible. Simply horrible and needlessly killed millions and millions of Frances best and brightest. So horrific were Frances losses in WW1 that the French has no will to fight 20 years later when WW2 came around. However the French appear to reverting back to their fighting past. And also appear (unlike the USA under Bush/Obama) to have a pretty good idea of who the enemy really is. We should be happy to have them in the fight.


8 posted on 01/14/2013 7:09:27 AM PST by jpsb
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To: DeadFurrow

It’s someone else’s turn I see. Perhaps that will change France’s opinion of us in regard to islam.


9 posted on 01/14/2013 7:09:42 AM PST by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: Jimmy Valentine

It would be instructive to witness the Legion in a two to three month operation supported by the French Air Force against Islamists in Mali. The results will probably be similar to the initial American success against the Taliban when The US initially intervened. The Taliban suffered heavy causalities and their government fell. But to what end? There has been a prolonged inconclusive war ever since. The same thing will happen in Mali. Unless the native non Islamists in Africa, arm, organize and effectively resist, Africa will eventually be predominantly Islamic. Also if the West were serious about stopping this fundamentalist wave, then it will have to deal with the Saudis in a definitive manner.


10 posted on 01/14/2013 7:18:02 AM PST by allendale
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To: midway1

Q: How many Frenchies does it take to defend Paris?
A: No one knows... it’s NEVER been done.

:-)


11 posted on 01/14/2013 7:22:13 AM PST by SomeCallMeTim ( The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them)
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To: Jimmy Valentine
Mali islamists have tied into something they will regret.

Who'd have thought we'd be standing in awe of the French... what an upside-down world in which we live...

12 posted on 01/14/2013 7:22:31 AM PST by ScottinVA (More dizzying than a Tilt-a-Whirl is an around-a-circle argument with a liberal about gun control.)
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To: DeadFurrow

This will grow because we are unwilling to pursue their funding sources. When we use to know how to fight an enemy we new ...attack their supply lines.. why wont we do that? Hmmmmmm?

Blowing up a few jihadies here and there does nothing...


13 posted on 01/14/2013 7:48:24 AM PST by Breto (Stranger in a strange land... where did America go?)
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To: Breto

You cut off funding (Saudi) OPEC jacks up the price of oil.


14 posted on 01/14/2013 7:53:58 AM PST by USAF80
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To: jpsb
If you read the history of France you will discover a long history of military excellence...

Yes. The French collapse in 1940 was due the German army's brilliant tank strategy, not French cowardice. One little-known story of that campaign is how well the remnants of the French army fought to cover the British evacuation at Dunkirk.

15 posted on 01/14/2013 7:57:20 AM PST by Leaning Right
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To: DeadFurrow

France has a huge Muslim population, I’m sure the sleeper cells there can cause a lot of problems. Is their immigration policy going to haunt them or will it open the eyes of the west to the terrorist threat once those cells start bombing innocents?


16 posted on 01/14/2013 8:13:02 AM PST by Paco
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To: USAF80

“You cut off funding (Saudi) OPEC jacks up the price of oil.”

Kinda makes a morality play doesn’t it. If we resolved to develop our own resources the Saudi’s would be irrelevant...


17 posted on 01/14/2013 8:31:24 AM PST by Breto (Stranger in a strange land... where did America go?)
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To: Paco

When the sleeper cells are activated, we will see many “peace loving muslims” (in name only) actively getting involved.


18 posted on 01/14/2013 8:31:35 AM PST by DeadFurrow (Your rights end where mine begins.)
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To: Leaning Right; midway1
Dunkirt youtube
19 posted on 01/14/2013 8:46:31 AM PST by jpsb
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To: SomeCallMeTim
The Battle of Verdun was one of the major battles during the First World War on the Western Front. It was fought between the German and French armies, from 21 February to 18 December 1916, on hilly terrain north of the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France.

According to contemporary estimates, Verdun resulted in 714,321 casualties, 377,231 on the French side and 337,000 on the German one, an average of 70,000 casualties for each of the ten months of the battle.[5] It was the longest and one of the most devastating battles in the First World War and the history of warfare. Modern estimates increase the number of casualties to 976,000.

20 posted on 01/14/2013 8:51:43 AM PST by jpsb
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