London:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QumGaL8pS2U

For now, yes, we're still moar concerned bout Kobe.
But wait'll these yahoos come trying 2 enforce Sharia law in the US...

To my surprise, so is Samarkand.

Was that the 'Muslim Patrol' video? People are madly overreacting about that here, it was just two knobheads driving around at night stealing alcoholic from drunk people and shouting "Muslim Patrol". It's hardly the start of WW3.

Lol France is so Beta. How long til they lose this one bros?

Off the top of my head, Rwanda and Haiti. What's your point? Following the money isn't a good idea when analysing foreign policy?

Since we keep intervening in Haiti that kinda negates your whole NO BLOOD FOR OIL shtick.

Regarding Haiti, I was thinking of the fact that we allowed Papa doc and Baby doc to kill 10's of thousands.

I'm suspicious because the citizens of the 3rd largest gold producer in Africa live in abject poverty and have the 3rd worst infant mortality rate on the continent. It just seems to me that the rebels are threatening to interrupt and possibly stop the looting. I'm not saying the rebels would be any better. Maybe it would be the same poverty with the added bonus of sharia law and islamic terrorism if the rebels won. I have no idea.

Would you like a smoke and a pancake?

Are you in the military?

I may or may not have stared at a goat or two in my life iykwim.

Well, thanks for your possible service. I hope no goats were harmed.

The cia world fact book shows imports from france at 11.6% (2nd highest partner). I'm guessing there's still quite a few landowners with ties to France also. Gotta be bringing in wine and cheese, I suppose, but I agree that there is more to the story than fighting terrororists.

French air forces repelled a rebel push yesterday according to western media. Malian rebel forces repelled a French push yesterday according to al-jazerra.

It is precisely because I couldn't imagine why the French, considering their reputation, were jumping into this affair that I find the story interesting. The gold and uranium are probably the correct answer, just wondered if there was something else that would prompt French involvement (besides the cynical Hollande needed to beef his military cred).

pivot to Algeria....

Just checking:
source
That means loans for weapons, right?

source
guessing there's drone hovering over all of africa like a bee necklace

source

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21109925

WTF?

So France wants its colony back?

It could be for the best.

The French in Chad and the British in Sierra Leone are similar situations of former colonial powers intervening militarily in ex colonies

Sierra Leone was not on this scale.

I mean, thank goodness for France amirite? source

I coulda been there right now, dying ingnomiously.

Ah well.

Am I the only person who thinks that the French/Malian government win here pretty much 100% of the time? The key difference in this fight vs other similar fights is that the Islamists have almost no support on the ground at all. The entire reason the surge in Iraq 'worked', and here I define 'worked' very loosely as doing a lot of damage to AQI, is that the locals went from helping AQI to actively shooting at them.

Assuming the French don't intend to meddle in local politics after they drive off the Islamists and let the Malians go back to killing one another over who gets to be in charge this should be pretty painless for the French.

I am not too well versed in what is going on in Mali, because I have barely studied it but one thing that stands out drastically is that Mali's currency is the CFA (French Franc).. This is why France wanted Gaddafi so badly. In 2007 Gaddafi said he was going to unite Africa under a new currency, gold. This would have made Africa extremely wealthy, and would have hurt France's power in the region significantly. If you control the currency you control the economy and the government.

I am sure this is a big factor in France's involvement.

Oh and the US is involved because of the heavy Chinese investment in Africa.

Here's a lengthy but good article explaining US involvement in Africa due to Chinese investment.

A few other notes of interest, China had ~$20 Billion invested in Libya, which all got bombed to **** from Nato/US/France.

The Libyan "rebels" offered France 35% of oil reserves to assist in overthrowing Gaddafi.

Mali's coup leader, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo ishhad been given US military and intelligence training by the US Africa Command, through the US State Department-sponsored International Military Education and Training program....what a surprise!

No.