So they're stupid enough to sign up for Hollande's grand African adventure.
But they're smart enough not to pay for it out of their own pockets!
Frankly, that's a pretty robust number. The five thousand African troops now envisioned are going to cost somebody $90,000 per man. Who that "somebody" will be remains up in the air.
That's a lot of money to pour into a part of the world where folks are used to living on less than two dollars a day. You know the fellows on the ground won't be putting that money in their pockets. Looks to me like another shakedown by the kleptocrats who run those not-yet-quite-failed ECOWAS states.
Who should be coughing up that money? France and whoever else signs on to this folly are doing this to preserve the economic interests of their corporations; maybe those corporations should foot the tab.
Not bloody likely! This $450m will come from general revenues in the "rich" countries. Unfortunately it's not the corporations or their owners who pay those taxes; the rich are invariably able to shirk their share of the tax burden no matter where you go.
So tighten up your belts there, working people of France. On top of what austerity you are enduring, be prepared to deliver up another half billion to pay for Hollande's delusions of Empire.
But even Hollande must have lucid moments wherein he questions the purpose of this exercise. There is no question that the French military can drive rebels out of any village in Mali. The African allies may then be able to keep them out.
And then what?
A perpetual occupation of Mali? And when the rebels take refuge in neighbor states, will those be invaded and occupied too?
Will Hollande's first triumph also be his Waterloo?
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