Socialists struggle with White Man's Burden

Whatever delusions may have attended the rise of Francois Hollande must be laid to rest by now.

I am referring to our delusions, not his. He appears to have fully embraced the Sarko-BHL delusion of an ascendant France reclaiming her colonial glory. If anything there is more bellicose tub-thumping coming from the Elysee Palace today than a year ago.

With respect to Syria, Hollande  has distinguished himself among the leaders of the Nations of Virtue with his undue haste in embracing the "opposition". To recognize the Syrian National Coalition as the "only legitimate representatives of the Syrian people" at a time when "their" liberation campaign has been thoroughly hijacked by Islamic fundamentalists seems, at the least, reckless and premature.

On a visit to Algeria this week Hollande acknowledged the residual ill will that lingers in that land even fifty years after independence. To make amends he promised them a Renault factory, but behind the scenes he was lobbying hard for Algerian support for France's next adventure in neo-colonialism.

That would be the upcoming re-liberation of Mali. It was a major diplomatic coup for the French to get unanimous Security Council support for their resolution to assemble and train a liberation army that will put the run to the Islamic radicals currently establishing Sharia law in the north of the country.

The French have nominated themselves to take the lead in this adventure, but press reports stress the actual boots on the ground will come from the neighboring ECOWAS nations. As it stands, the plan has several fatal flaws.

First of all, the numbers make no sense whatsoever. A 3,000 strong ECOWAS force might be able to hold Gao and perhaps a handful of smaller centers in the north, but that will hardly impact Ansar Dine and their al Qaeda cohorts, let alone defeat them.

Secondly, the time line is ridiculous. If  the ECOWAS force can be trained, and if  the Malian army can be brought up to a suitable standard, then the earliest intervention date would be in late 2013, almost a year hence. Judging by the success of "training" programs in Iraq and Afghanistan, this expectation in itself will be the kiss of death for the entire operation.

The training issue seems a bit dodgy to begin with. The leader of the coup that overthrew the civilian government is a Colonel in the Malian army who was himself trained in the US, but perhaps the French think they have superior training skills.

A lot can happen in a year. The two most lucrative gold mines in Mali are scheduled to be worked out by the end of 2013. Their closing will take some of the urgency out of the West's call for intervention, and they are located in the south west of the country far from the al Qaeda threat.

The think tank here at Falling Downs has a simpler and wiser solution, one that conforms to the humanitarian ideals of Hollande's Socialist Party. We simply take a page from Hollande's Syria playbook and recognize Ansar Dine as the legitimate representatives of the Malian people!