Mali is the new Afghanistan

Since March, much of northern Mali has been beyond the control of the Malian government and in the hands of rebels who make no secret of their affiliation with al-Qaeda. Bolstered by an influx of former Gaddafi soldiers, and loaded up with weapons looted from his armouries, the rebels easily overwhelmed the Malian army's thinly spread Saharan garrisons. They now control a territory the size of France and more than 250,000 refugees have fled to neighbouring countries.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/inside-alqaedas-new-home-20121021-27zde.html

 

The United States, which spent years working with Mali's army against al Qaeda's Sahara wing, has called for a more cautious approach, seeking elections to strengthen the political leadership in Bamako first, with a possible military intervention later if needed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/19/us-mali-crisis-idUSBRE89I1GL20121019

 

Forget Mali. Let ot rot.

We need to focus on what matters. We need to sign, seal and deliver a nuclear winter to the Iranian Terror Country.

The USA and Israel are in mortal danger from the Iran Terror Monstrosity.

 

Shouldn't it be relatively easy for US aircraft to pick-off targets in the desert?

 

You'd sure think so, but we come up with endless ways to lose.

 

?.....using low-altitude, ultra-light, open-air, gyro-copters where the pilot has to pull the pin on the grenade with his teeth before releasing it below? :eek:

 

Mali is such an important country.

Timbuktoooooooooooooooo

 

We may find out soon. France announced today that they are sending drones to Mali.

Many in the West fear that northeast Mali and the arid Sahel region could become the new Afghanistan, a no-man’s-land where extremists can train, impose hardline Islamic law and plot terror attacks abroad. And France, former colonial ruler to countries across the Sahel, is a prime target.

“This is actually a major threat — to French interests in the region, and to France itself,” said Francois Heisbourg, an expert at the Foundation for Strategic Research, a partially state-funded think tank in Paris. “This is like Afghanistan 1996. This is like when Bin Laden found a place that was larger than France in which he could organize training camps, in which he could provide stable preparations for organizing far-flung terror attacks.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...c2259e-1c66-11e2-8817-41b9a7aaabc7_story.html