Black einsatzkommando follows French blitzkrieg into northern Mali

We're not hearing much about Hollande the Conqueror's great Malian adventure these days. Perhaps that's because the French victory has enabled a vicious ethnic cleansing campaign in the north of the country which Hollande and his white liberal cheerleaders in the Nations of Virtue would prefer not to have publicized.

The objective is to eliminate the Arab presence. In Timbuktu there were about 500 Arab families as recently as last month. Now there are three, each of which has already had members disappear.

Meanwhile US troops are digging in for an extended stay in next door Niger, where a regional drone base has already been established.

All in the name of fighting the al Qaeda terror threat!

Colonial masters plead for more guns for their bumboys in Mali

It's a sad story.

Not only is the US/Canadian trained Mali army hopelessly inept, they have been forced to practice their warrior schtick with sticks instead of guns. Yes, that's how bad it is.

So French General Francois Lecointre is pleading with the Nations of Virtue to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send rocket launchers and surface to air missiles and maybe a few tanks for these Bushmen who have for years proven that they are willing to sell their loyalties to the highest bidder.

What could possibly go wrong?

African allies demand $450 millions for Mali junket

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?