Another Military Hot Spot

For John, BLUF:  American military commitments will continue after we withdraw from Afghanistan.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

From the International Herald Tribune we have this report on US Military planning for operations in Mali, against al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

U.S. military planners are working closely with African nations in advance of an offensive to wrest control of northern Mali from al-Qaida linked extremists, Obama administration officials said Wednesday.

Mali, you say?  Yes, Mali.  We have to save Timbuktu.

(This map is from Wikipedia, and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

For those who read the article and said to themselves, we are just helping with planning for the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), keep in mind that it is likely we will be providing the airlift to move forces to and fro.  We will have our Special Forces on the ground, helping.  We may even have airpower present, to help.  Further, if we give the forces any new equipment, we will be training the ECOWAS Soldiers on its use.  And, we will be providing logistic support to this operation, from beans to bullets.

One of our goals will be for no Americans to die in this operation, thus bringing undue domestic US attention.

I hope it works out that way.

In the mean time, while our Foreign Policy is doing a pivot to the Far East, AQIM is doing a pivot down toward Nigeria.

Regards  —  Cliff