Mali wipes Syria off news map

Have you noticed that too?

France flys a few hundred troops to Mali and suddenly Syria no longer exists on the front pages of the news sites of the world.

It's still there on the back pages, at least on some of those sites.

Let's do a brief accounting of the relative importance of each story.

Syria, a major country at the heart of Arab consciousness. Besieged by foreign forces largely armed and instigated by the West.

Not a story.

Mali, a country on the fringe of everything, but a major source of revenue for a few Western gold mining conglomerates.

Front page news.

Get the picture?

When Allah triumphs in Timbuktu, can AFRICOM be far behind?

Not likely.

The prophets of American Exceptionalism will be taking exception to this.

Seems the Gaddafi cast-offs and the so-called al-Qaeda of the Maghreb have declared themselves a free and independent Sharia state in the north of Mali.

Not so fast you towel-topped terrorists!

Drones for Jesus will be coming your way soon!

Time was when the Nations of Virtue sent missionaries to the benighted lands.

Now we send drones and the very appropriately named Hellfire missiles.

"Allah has triumphed you say? Here's a little hellfire for His troubles..."

Elsewhere in the Dark Continent that shifty al-Qaeda sympathizer Erdogan has been busy stirring the pot in Somalia.

Seems the wily Turks are trying to rebuild the Ottoman empire right under our noses.

Can't imagine AFRICOM is going to let that slide for long either.