U.S. Agrees To French Request For Airlift Help For Mali Operation
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON | Thu Jan 17, 2013 5:03pm EST
(Reuters) - The United States has agreed to a French request for airlift capacity to help France move its troops and equipment to Mali, a U.S. official said on Thursday.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/17/us-sahara-crisis-usa-airlift-idUSBRE90G1CD20130117
msongs
(67,433 posts)iandhr
(6,852 posts)This is airlifting Frances Military equipment.
There is a big difference between multilateralism which is whats going on here and the unilateral nature of the Iraq war.
Hard Assets
(274 posts)us for the time spent and effort.
OnlinePoker
(5,725 posts)They withdrew in the 60's as de Gaulle wanted France to be on an equal footing to the U.S. and U.K. in the upper echelon of NATO and to have the option of negotiating a separate peace with the Warsaw Pact if it invaded West Germany. That being said, they have maintained an arms-length relationship with the remainder of NATO vis-a-vis security in Europe.
Charles Goya
(18 posts)TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)Ash_F
(5,861 posts)iandhr
(6,852 posts)Ash_F
(5,861 posts)It's not my job to educate you. I am sure you are more than capable. Here is a hint, turn off the tv. Good day.
.
pasto76
(1,589 posts)and this military coup government now has its back against the wall.
you should feel like a dope right about now
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)... a country can not be called a democracy. Do you know what a democracy is?
Oh and btw the central coup government is the one that is being supported by France. Your post is wrong on so many levels.
Lucky Luciano
(11,258 posts)to destroy as many historical sites as possible in Mali and enforce strict Sharia law? If that is democracy, I don't want democracy. These religious maniacs are a menace. The Touaregs had to cancel their huge festival in the desert way out past Timbuktu because of all this. A real shame.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)Because there are fanatics in a country then surely that is exactly what it's rebellion is about. So the entire group(and others of which you are likely uneducated on) are shitstains? Seriously go ahead, blatant racism is ok on DU these days.
Lucky Luciano
(11,258 posts)They are the one desecrating historical sites in the name of some flying spaghetti monster - much like the ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan were tragically destroyed.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)I don't suppose you think Obama's election was about the new Black Panthers trying to enslave the white man?
Start here: http://thinkafricapress.com/
Lucky Luciano
(11,258 posts)I was actually fascinated with going to Mali. I was planning to go to Essakane in January of last year, but didn't have time. My friends had an amazing experience there with great people and music - specifically with the Tuaregs.
Now some folks obsessed with their version of the Flying Spaghetti Monster have ruined the area. I sympathize with the Tuaregs in general, but not with anyone associated with the desecration of historically significant sites in Mali in the name of god. Such people can go to much worse extremes.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)Not all of them being Muslim fundamentalists, and not all of them even allied to each other. Some in fact have been fighting each other. But NATO is going to kill them all just the same and impose the will of the central government, which is actually their will. If France really wanted to be the good guys then they would offer aid with the stipulation that a post war government must be truly democratic and include the Tuareg and other disenfranchised minorities, but that is not what is happening currently.
Charles Goya
(18 posts)Two things I am not sure of:
1) How Al Qaeda "affiliates" become "affiliates" (because they are linked to AQ or because the media/US say so?
and
2) How Al Qaeda-"linked" groups became "linked" to AQ. (because they share resources or because the media/US said they are linked?)
Chathamization
(1,638 posts)They don't even talk about the groups participating in the fighting, just calling them "al-Qaeda-linked groups," and then talk about concerns that the country will become a safe haven for al-Qaeda. The groups that are fighting are various groups mainly made up of a relatively small ethnic minority in the country. Other parts of the reports are great - that they've taken control of an area the size of Afghanistan - neglecting to mention that it's the most sparsely populated part of the country, and a lot of that land is in the Sahara desert. Or that the rebels are "only" 400km from the capital - which, incidentally, is the distance from the capital to those sparsely populated areas (it's also almost the distance needed to cross Guinea and reach Sierra Leon - I wouldn't be surprised if some rebels in Sierra Leon managed to get "only" 400km away from Bamako).
Also, the "al-Qaeda" they're linked to apparently isn't the al-Qaeda that we know, but a group that started out as the "Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat," before changing their names and "swearing loyalty" to al-Qaeda for branding purposes (it seems). Frankish kings would swear loyalty to the Byzantine emperor for similar reasons, but had no significant connection.
Alamuti Lotus
(3,093 posts)Last edited Sat Jan 19, 2013, 12:48 AM - Edit history (1)
The media is not powerful enough to be inventing facts on the ground. There are three main fighting groups, two are native Arab/Toureg nationalist forces (Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa and Ansar ad-Din, whose commander has been a part of the Toureg resistance struggle for over 20 years).
The third force was formerly based in Algeria. In the 1990s, the Algerian military cancelled elections that a centrist Islamic party was going to dominate; the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA in French) was formed to fight the military dictatorship and their French backers, with a splinter group known as the Salafist Group for Preaching & Combat that took the primary role in the fight after 1999. That party was in conflict with al-Qai'dah for years, but finally made peace with them and rebranded themselves as al-Qai'dah in the Islamic Maghreb (which means "West", Mashriq--Palestine/Syria/Iraq/etc--being "East" . The 'franchise' name alone seems to the contribution from the 'home office', which is long passed its period of being a central headquarters for their world revolution. The decentralized status of the present organizations seems to be more of a threat now than it was before, for there is no central leadership to decapitate that would affect the groups as a whole.
There is not much of a connection between these parties and the organization led by Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, presumably still based in Pakistan. The organization fanned out across the Sahara and Sahel (Niger River basin) over the last few years and has grown very strong on its own, as witnessed by the quick success of the Malian Islamic Coalition (as they call themselves) in rolling over the military junta first, and French invasion forces presently. They have a bit of backing from some Saudi businessmen, but Qatar is opposed to them and supports the NATO invasion (Qatar might as well be made a satellite office of the NATO aggressive alliance now). Contary to unnecessarily optimistic assumption by unqualified professional analysts (same people who crowed about "slam dunks", deadly weather balloons, babies in incubators, and the like), many businessmen and workers in the region (from Mauretania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and the entire Niger River valley in West Africa) support the efforts of the fighters of various organizations against their very corrupt governments, most of which are wholly beholden to NATO powers and are barely above being military dictatorships that siphon money from the people and build themselves palaces.
ButterflyBlood
(12,644 posts)ellisonz
(27,711 posts)of a small majority to impose their beliefs on the majority through military might. What could be more American!
Ian Iam
(386 posts)After all the grief France has gotten from rightwing U.S. chickenhawks, I should think you owe them!
Socal31
(2,484 posts)I assume I do not need to go into all of those reasons as they are common knowledge.
Your suggestion that the US should be involved in another "operation" due to some idiot saying "Freedom Fries" is frankly the most ludicrous thing I have read all day.
Ian Iam
(386 posts)Have a Merry Weekend