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Special Report
Beau Geste in Mali
It’s not the French Foreign Legion, but it’s drama just the same.
The rescue of Konna by the French army’s 11th Airlift brigade over the weekend had all the drama and gallantry that we have come to expect of our own forces as they battle savage tribesmen in the wilds of Afghanistan’s remote regions and Pakistan’s northwest. The timing was breath-taking; a delay of just a few hours and the Islamist onslaught on southern Mali might have become irreversible: fresh, well-equipped and highly motivated jihadist troops would have taken Bamako and presented the Malians — and us and the French — with a stark choice: make a deal or fight us in a densely populated city where most of the victims will be the populations you are trying to rescue.
It did not happen that way — so far — because the Ansar Dine men led by the feared veteran Tuareg jihadist and bandit Iyad Ag Ghali paused in Konna, a small town on the Niger about a hundred miles south of Timbuktu, instead of racing on to the Mopti-Sevare junction. It may have been that the French heli-borne troops cut them off at the pass — we will find out eventually; at any rate the 11th knew they had to hold Sevare, because there is an airstrip there and you need an airstrip if you are going to go after the long-distance raid specialists who make up the bulk of Ansar Dine’s force.
The French were able to move as fast as they did because, first of all, they obviously are good at this, but also because they were getting ready for exactly this sort of operation. They expected to be the ones who would be on the offensive, doing what they did in Konna in Gao or Timbuktu, important cities of the north that fell to the combined Tuareg and jihadist forces that conquered northern Mali — a territory the size of France — last April after a three-month rout of the Malian army.
Ansar Dine jumped the gun on them, probably out of a combination of several reasons. There was a tactical urgency: they could see the French build-up, on both the military and diplomatic fronts. Since September, Paris has put together a coalition of the willing, a difficult feat in a region characterized by ancient tribal hatreds — the word is not too strong — and mutually suspicious post-colonial regimes. At the same time, French army advisors based in Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, and elsewhere in the Sahel region have been making battle plans and getting their equipment ready.
The idea, for which the Hollande government sought and received UN Security Council approval in late December, was to raise a three thousand-strong multinational army with French advisors in order to liberate northern Mali. It would be done with the full cooperation of the Mali government, and the Malian army, or what remains of it, would be a full participant in the campaign. It is this plan which Iyad Ag Ghali evidently tried to pre-empt.
A second urgency was caused by the shifting political situation in the region. The Mali civil war began as a secessionist movement among non-jihadist Tuareg, and although these were routed by Ag Ghali and his AQIM (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) allies, an international force whose core is composed of veterans of the Algerian civil war of the 1990s, they remain a factor in the war over Mali. They also receive some consideration from the Mauritanians: these are determined to wipe out al Qaeda, but they are not averse to backing MNLA, i.e. secular Tuareg, claims to some sort of autonomy.
The Mauritanian leadership believes, at any rate, that the problem of northern Mali must include a program for helping the long-neglected Tuareg populations. Apart from a certain affinity for another nomadic, desert people, the Moors — the dominant group among the Mauritanians — have learned there cannot be peace on their eastern frontier if the “Tuareg Question” is not resolved.
The French toyed with the idea of creating a Tuareg state at the time of decolonization, but it went nowhere. They had other problems, particularly the painful withdrawal from Algeria, and they did not want to quarrel with the leaders of the new sub-Saharan nations, including Mali. These were black-power men for the most part — “Africa for the Africans” was the slogan of the hour. They and the “whites” of the Maghreb — Arabs, Moors, Berbers — did not like one another. They still do not.
This is evident in the reaction of the MNLA to the French intervention. Although they are on the sidelines, they continue to issue communiqués and make appearances at the various venues of mediation that have been tried in Algiers and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Their position is that the French should be applauded for attacking the Islamists, but they must do it not on behalf of the failed Malian state, but for the benefit of the indigenous populations of what they call the Azawad.
Surely this view has some merit, but it neglects several realities. The Tuareg are not the only native residents of the Azawad — there are also Moors and, more ominously, the Songhai. Songhai and Tuareg regard each other with a contempt from which racism is rarely absent.
The complexities of the Sahel render a political solution problematic, which in turn means a military solution can only be partial and temporary. This is surely why Dominique de Villepin criticized the French intervention over the weekend. It seems a little gross for a former foreign minister to attack his own country’s government in time of war, but he maintains he is only being consistent with the stance he took in 2003 when he voted against the U.S. intervention in Iraq at the UN (after telling Colin Powell he would support us). His thesis is that you cannot go to war if there is no political interlocutor with whom, afterwards, you know you can make peace.
Regardless of our own feelings about Villepin (and his feelings toward us), his point may be worth pondering. Not that there is a credible alternative to what the French army is so gallantly doing, short of allowing a major breakthrough by the Islamist internationale into the very heart of Africa, with all the consequences that will have. But there is an urgent need for our own policy-makers to think hard about the choices, often unpleasant, that need to be made in the kind of long-term contest that we are engaged in.
Mr. Kaplan just returned from a trip to Mauritania.
About the Author
Roger Kaplan, a Washington-based writer, covers the Middle East and Africa (and tennis) for The American Spectator.
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Al Adab| 1.14.13 @ 8:26AM
At least the French went in with a simple task in mind. Just as Team Six did their mission, so did these troops. It is the concept of nation building which misleads. Defeating the bad guys is the thing to do, creating civilization in our image is another.
Oh and watch
Al Adab| 1.14.13 @ 8:28AM
oops.
Watch out for Argentina which is making noise about the Falkland islands again. Will this administration back England or has the message reached Argentina that we don't care?
Pecos Pete| 1.14.13 @ 9:16AM
Al: Easy answer ... King O doesn't care, and probably actively supports Argentina behind the scenes.
Al Adab| 1.14.13 @ 11:17AM
Cold enough for you up there? I think the message is out that Argentina is free to act and the U S will not take sides or support England.
Now we help The French in Mali? Cannot this administration have any consistent foreign policy?
RCV| 1.14.13 @ 12:11PM
We didn't back England last time, either. Do you not remember how Reagan infuriated Margaret Thatcher by announcing that the US was neutral on the issue of English-Argentinian claims to sovereignty over the islands, but opposed the use of force to settle the issue? We also now know that Alexander ("I'm in charge") Haig actually argued inside the administration that the US should back Argentina.
Quartermaster| 1.14.13 @ 1:02PM
We were neutral at first, but not later. Haig's argumnets are part of the reason he didn't last much longer as well.
RCV| 1.14.13 @ 1:27PM
Not true. We condemned the use of force, but took no sides on the sovereignty issue. Most infuriatingly to England, we refused to provide the UK with AWACs aircraft or even intelligence data.
Haig was indeed a disgrace throughout the episode. He even suggested surreptitiously providing British military plans to take South Georgia island back to the Argentinian junta as a "show of good faith" to them.
KennesawJack| 1.14.13 @ 5:11PM
None of this matters. As denuded as the British military is, they will fight as long as they have to to retain the Falklands. Kirchner is beating this drum only because her popularity is plummeting and she needs something to distract the Argentinians away from the mess she's been making of their economy.
Meister| 1.14.13 @ 6:00PM
You are right. Argentina does not have the capability to invade the Falklands. Kirchner is posturing for domestic consumption.
RCV| 1.14.13 @ 6:30PM
Fully agree on that point. As well it should, because not a soul who lives on that island wants to be Argentine.
Occam's Tool| 1.14.13 @ 9:25PM
We should have supported the Brits. Period.
Haig had all the military and diplomatic skills of his WWI British namesake. He also was infuriated at Israel knocking out Osirak. He was a blithering nincompoop, and the least useful member of a great President's cabinet.
KennesawJack| 1.14.13 @ 10:17PM
Occam, A true story. Back in the 80's my wife and I were at a party at the Boca Raton Club. Alexander Haig and his wife were in the receiving line. She knew most of the folks in the line but didn't recognize Haig. She asked me who he was and I said, softly I thought, that he was the man, who if he'd taken time to read the Constitution, might have had a shot at being President. The guy in the line in front of me, turned around, chuckling, said "Yes, and the General reminds himself of that everyday." He then introduced himself as Haig's Chief of Staff. Obviously, I was a bit mortified but the guy was very gracious and thought it was actually kind of funny. Later that evening, I had occasion to meet the General. Not very impressive, in my opinion.
Meister| 1.14.13 @ 6:05PM
Argentina's dream of retaking the Falklands will remain just that. They have nothing like the capability that would be required and Kirchner knows it.
Arnie| 1.14.13 @ 1:16PM
Agreed.
Simon Templar| 1.14.13 @ 10:07AM
For the whole story that Kaplan seems to have left out while he was he was toasting the French and celebrating drama.. It truly is the stupid party or the colluding party.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-P.....-Collapses
R Kaplan| 1.14.13 @ 11:13AM
Sir, Please accept my commiseration, and if you can overcome your sloth, allow me to direct you to a report in the NY Times today from which the piece you refer to lifted its information and its slant. Neither is new; what happened in Mali as well as the painfully obvious shortcomings of our policy in that country were reported during last year's Tuareg war in any number of news outlets including this one. Catching up a year late, Breitbart and the Times suggest that in the new media as in the old, wide awake reporting is still rather essential. Which applies to reading as well, as you seem determined to demonstrate.
cicero| 1.14.13 @ 11:43AM
Al Adab - I agree with your viewpoiont. Roger, good job. The French have undertaken a job that the entire world should have done years ago. When we see radical Islam attempting to terrorize any country into submission, go in with force adaquate to the job, and kill them all. We need not stay and try to build any nation. That is up to the people who live there. To consider these endeavors by radical islamists as civil wars misses the mark by a lot.
In each of these incidents, the radical islamists enter a country; set up shop and recruit soldiers; and then terrorize the population with murders and bombings. They then get th press to declare their efforts a "civil war". This is usally done in countries with weak governments that do not have the support of their people, or have a population of disparate groups.
The French seem to have recognized the situation for what is is. They deserve our support. If we destroy enough of these islamist terrorists, they will fade back into oblivion.
Quartermaster| 1.14.13 @ 1:22PM
Another factor is the French created the situation when they granted independence. Like the British Empire, the post-colonial borders were not drafted by with consideration of ethnic/language groups considered. As a result, you end up with nonsense like Mali and Kenya. It's been a formula for chaos and death. The French have an obligation to take of the mess in Mali.
RCV| 1.14.13 @ 1:28PM
Agree. Glad to see the French step up to their obligations as the former colonial power.
KennesawJack| 1.14.13 @ 5:15PM
What IS this world coming to? I recall Chris Rock's remark and expand upon it. "What's going on with the world? The best golfer in the world is black, the best basketball player is white, and the Germans don't want to fight?' I would add, "and the French do!"
RCV| 1.14.13 @ 6:32PM
Rock's remark also noted that the best rapper at the time, Eminem, was white.
KennesawJack| 1.14.13 @ 7:02PM
Hah! I'd forgotten that, RC.
Frog in Uniform | 1.14.13 @ 8:12PM
Quite funny! But don't blame the military when things go wrong, blame the worst political class in the whole free world. I still don't know how our president saw the light because I was becoming really pessimistic about the whole matter in Mali and Centre Afrique. But it ain't over till it's over and unfortunately Hollande may change his mind at any moment and leave us holding the bag. We may ponder about the usefulness of fighting an islamic militia thousands of miles from Frogland while having millions of the same thugs at home.
KennesawJack| 1.14.13 @ 10:20PM
Frog, at the end of the day, I keep reminding myself that your's is the Country that gave my Country Lafayette. I expect that lineage still wears the uniform and wears it well.
Occam's Tool| 1.14.13 @ 9:24PM
Frog: at least it is a start. I hope the French win this one. But I have my doubts, still.
RCV| 1.15.13 @ 12:42AM
The current French military elite can do small jobs superbly well. When the Saudis needed to quell the Islamist takeover of Mecca, they used French paratroopers, who quickly accomplished what the entire Saudi military couldn't.
Frog in Uniform | 1.15.13 @ 4:02AM
Right on, Monsieur RC. The paras you mention were from a Gendarmerie unit I work with. In order to do their work in Mecca they were granted "temporary" muslim statute, otherwise the Prophet would have been gravely insulted by their mere presence in their holy city. Dumb cult.
On the picture on top of this article, you can see 2 very accurate long range sniper rifles, PGM Hecate II in .50 caliber. They're great for this kind of warfare.
hrgfue | 1.15.13 @ 1:56AM
2013 Happy New Year,NFL,NBA,fashion kickoff for u
hrgfue | 1.15.13 @ 1:56AM
2013 Happy New Year,NFL,NBA,fashion kickoff for u