Hollande all alone in Mali after Chad Pres declares "mission accomplished"

Francois Hollande, aka "the Conqueror," aka "the Crusader," is finding things getting a little lonely in "Operation Spurs for Hollande."

France's only ally in the ill-advised (well, BHL advised it, so I'm sure at some level it must have been a stroke of genius) Mali adventure has served notice that the Chadians are outta there. Yup, President Idriss Deby may be black, but he's not stupid and he's not consumed with hallucinations of restoring past glory to his nation.

Unlike Hollande and his top military adviser Bernard-Henri Levy.

So now the French are good and stuck...

Look for AFRICOM to ride to the rescue real soon!

AFRICOM boss slams US training of Mali army

In recent years the US has spent at least $500 million training the Malian military. What's to show for that outlay? An army that bullies the civilian population, overthrows the democratically elected government, and collapses into chaos in the face of the Toureg insurgency.

If General Carter Ham was a glass-half-full kind of guy he might have said something along the lines of, "well, just imagine what a mess the place would be if we hadn't trained them... thank God we were there for them!"

So give Bwana Ham credit for not trying to spin this debacle. In fact, he mans up and takes full responsibility. Seems the US trainers forgot their lesson plans for the values and ethics chapters in the training manuals. Well, it's no surprise then that our students are summarily executing unarmed civilians and dropping their bodies down wells.

Looks like the rascals are going to have to be trained all over again.

Saving Mali before it's too late

This impassioned plea  for help hits all the hot buttons. Notice that northern Mali is in the hands of terrorists and drug-traffickers who rape women, press children into their terror and drug-trafficking gangs, and hack off limbs willy-nilly.

The writer appeals for help from the US and France.

Ever since the tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee of Canadian politics contradicted one another last week about whether Canada intends to play a role in the liberation of Mali there has been a subtle sales job foisted on the public designed to push the pro-intervention case. This scary story appeared on the Ottawa Citizen website this afternoon. The drug-trafficking jihadi rapists are moving towards the south and now clearly threaten the entire country.

And the south is where the Canadian mining operations are to be found. This will no doubt seal the deal in Ottawa.

"Before it's too late" is code for ASAP. This can't wait till the September date that the UN envisioned.  Those marauding jihadi rapists who hack off limbs and use children as sex slaves are on the move NOW!

Nor can such an important mission be left to Africans. AU intervention is simply not up to the challenge. This is a job for Massah.

Ergo, the US and France and probably Canada must act NOW.

These are three of the countries that have been saving Afghanistan since 2001. How is that going?

In 2004 they took the time to save Haiti too, saving the country from its democratically elected leader Aristide. How is Haiti doing?

In 2011 all three participated in the salvation of Libya. How did that turn out for the Libyans?

Let's hope the rebels save Mali before it's too late.