...That split, (click here) in June, was a watershed moment in the vast decentralization of Al Qaeda and its ideology since 9/11. As the power of the central leadership created by Osama bin Laden has declined, the vanguard of violent jihad has been taken up by an array of groups in a dozen countries across Africa and the Middle East, attacking Western interests in Algeria and Libya, training bombers in Yemen, seizing territory in Syria and Iraq, and gunning down shoppers in Kenya....
France had the correct approach. They rely on intelligence and seek to dissolve criminal components in these numerous and small nations. They are returning to a presence in the region of 3000 troops.
The map to the right is Africa. The dark band is the Sahel region.
January 26, 2014
French Defense Minister (click here) Jean-Yves Le Drian says the country is to expand its military presence in Africa’s Sahel region.
“This redeployment will
cover about 3000 troops which we are about to reorganize and re-deploy
all over the area,” Le Drian said in an address to the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. on Friday.
The Sahel spans 5,400 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east.
“I wanted to say all this to you because we think that the intervention in Mali is not enough. We have to go beyond,” he added.
France began a major
military intervention in its former colony in January, citing concerns
about the growing influence of militants in northern Mali and a
rebellion by Tuareg separatists that threatened the French-backed Malian
government.
“We have to protect
ourselves against different risks, new risks and especially, tomorrow,
against the risk of a Libyan chaos,” said the French minister.
The map to the right is the concentration of world aid to the region. These people know suffering all too well. Engaging is war is something that comes natural to them for the violence within their impoverishment. Additional killing in the way of a full scale war will only 'institutionalize' death and it's accompanying economy.
Stability and suppression of violence is what these people need. They don't need more guns or The West to launch large scale plans of attack. The people are not the problem, the institution of the fight for resources is the problem. They need stability, not more chaos.
The defeat of so called al Qaeda does not require a world war. Not even close. I am sure we will be leaving Afghanistan.
