Getting Involved

"They bombed Diabaly. They bombed the town all night long. I am hiding inside a house. Everyone is afraid to go out."
Ibrahim Toure, resident of Diabaly, cowering within his mud-walled home

"I would advise France not to sing their victory song too quickly. They managed to leave Afghanistan. They will never leave Mali."
Omar Ould Hamaha, commander, Movement for Oneness and Jihad, West Africa

Mali, an immense, over-heated desert, difficult as Afghanistan or Pakistan are for any national government to adequately enforce jurisdiction and remain vigilant and effectively responsive to challenges from Islamists dedicated to the return of a global Islamist Caliphate through violent jihad, now has its champion in its battle against Islamism.

Paradoxically, not the combined forces of the African Union. They have not yet made their entry to Mali, despite their stated intentions. It is France, the former colonial master which knows the terrain, speaks the languages, trained the fighters, which has responded forcefully to having sighted Islamist militias marching toward Bamako.

And having done so, and met considerable, surprising resistance with formidable arms never having been suspected in the possession of the jihadists, will now increase the presence of their military from 800 to 2,500. And although President Francois Hollande boasts on the one hand that the work of sweeping away the jihadists will likely take no longer than a week he is also prepared to allow French troops to remain longer.

"We have one objective: To make sure that when we leave, when we end this intervention, there is security in Mali, legitimate leaders, an electoral process and the terrorists no longer threaten its territory", he announced grandiosely while visiting in the United Arab Emirates. "We are confident about the speed with which we will be able to stop the aggressors, the enemy, these terrorists."

An admirable aspiration indeed. And with the modest transport assistance of allies such as Britain, the United States and even more modestly for the moment Canada, the game is afoot. French armoured vehicles even sped toward Diabaly which has been taken by the Islamists who though equipped with old Russian machine guns and other small arms, also are in possession of more effective weaponry, capable of shooting down a French helicopter gunship.

That's determination; despite five full days of air strikes, the Islamists were able to take Diabaly, a town of 35,000 - home to an important military camp. Whose armaments are now in whose possession? Odd that the offensive that was to have been led by thousands of African troops went awry. Despite the pledge by Mali's neighbours, those troops have been tardy, are not yet on the scene.

Somehow, things are never as they seem; solutions are never so simple. Who among NATO and ISAF ever imagined that ten years would pass and Afghanistan still would not be in a secure position with "security, legitimate leaders, an electoral process and the terrorists no longer threatening its territory"?