Mali heating up

After a failed operation by French forces where a helicopter was shot down and a soldier was killed, the RAF has moved two C-17s to France to move equipment to Mali. The first aircraft was scheduled to load up in Paris with armored vehicles and other equipment to assist with the fight against rebels in Mali. The second was scheduled to arrive in Paris later Sunday. The first aircraft will make one trip to Bamko, the second will shuttle back and forth from Paris for the next several days.

The Minister for Africa has said British personnel could play a role in training Malian forces through the EU, but for now are only supplying limited airlift support.

A report also says the French have asked for US support as well. The US has operated everything from Predators, to Global Hawks, to U-28s in the region. It's believed that they are already sharing ISR and other data with French forces, but may include in flight refueling, and other airlift assistance, with the RAF.

Forces from Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Togo are expected within days to assist with fighting the rebels.

An RAF C17 cargo plane has arrived at a Paris airbase to help French military efforts to contain rebels in Mali.

The first of two planes will load up with French armoured vehicles and other equipment before flying to the West African state on Monday.

A second C17 is due to arrive on Sunday evening. No UK troops would be deployed in a combat role, Downing Street said.

www.bbc.co.uk...

According to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to the AFP on Jan. 12, the Pentagon would be evaluating the possible contribution to the French air campaign in Mali.

Intelligence gathering platforms, surveillance drones, aerial refueling tankers: these are the support options being considered by Washington.

Even if it still unclear whether France or Mali have officially request U.S. help, what is certain is that the U.S. has never ceased to pinpoint rebel positions and monitor their movements in the area.

theaviationist.com...

theaviationist.com...
theaviationist.com...

This has been a long time coming. The planned NATO (ie. The US) operation to fight "Terrorism" was news in Mid-December of 2012.. Irregardless, why should the world care what goes in some bum-f backhole of nation in the world's craphole Africa...?

Im just saying, has anything good ever come out of Mali or Africa for that matter?

Link to confirm statement:
rt.com...


Besides, Mali was a French colony. Wouldn't some of the prominent anti-colonialists look at this and say "hmm, a parent country sending its military to once again invade the land it colonialize..nothing fishy there?!?!?"

timbuktu is in mali, it is one of the most important trading posts in all of human civilization.

alot of ideas and goods flowed through this country., it is part of what made us who we are today.

long before your "bum f***" country existed, mali was an empire. show a little intelligence, and a little sympathy for a country that has been torn apart.

it needs external help from strong western nations. help we can provide. easily.
might be nice to do something thats not about oil for a change.

reply to post by okamitengu


Really...? Someone from a colony that gained "Independence" from its ruler (yet still flies part of the flag of empire in their own sovereign flag) wants to defend something as meager as Timbuktu?

England was once an Empire too, conquered the land you now live on, and from which your previous countrymen rebelled from. Do you have anything good to say about England?

Islam flowed through this country, and now flows through the minds of the "Terrorists" who are fighting, would you call the a good idea too.. Mate??

you would punish an entire nation because the religion of islam passed through it?
thats a pretty small view of the world.

im of irish decent. i dont like the english, but i respect the former empire, i would stand up for them not being a *butf*** nothing country. thier history alone establishes that is not the case.

the same with mali.

they might not be the empire they were, they have a right to respect. just because YOU know nothing of thier history doesnt negate its value.

its not so much mali i want to stand up for, its your attitude towards them i want to stand against.

reply to post by okamitengu


My statement on Islam is simple: You proposed that good ideas flowed through Mail, the religion of Islam being one of them. Now, given that the terrorists are Muslim which, just in case you can't put the two together, means they are followers of Islam. Given that these terrorists are the ones ruining this "once great" nation (although it was French colony and since gained independence has been in chaos) and are Muslim, would you still agree that Islam was good idea coming into this region that was good for the world and made us who we are today, as you previously stated?

And, for the record, I call Mali a Butt-f country, not England..

Originally posted by FellowTraveller
reply to post by okamitengu

 

My statement on Islam is simple: You proposed that good ideas flowed through Mail, the religion of Islam being one of them. Now, given that the terrorists are Muslim which, just in case you can't put the two together, means they are followers of Islam. Given that these terrorists are the ones ruining this "once great" nation (although it was French colony and since gained independence has been in chaos) and are Muslim, would you still agree that Islam was good idea coming into this region that was good for the world and made us who we are today, as you previously stated?

And, for the record, I call Mali a Butt-f country, not England..

edit on 13-1-2013 by FellowTraveller because: (no reason given)

you did, your insinuation was that nothing has ever come out of africa.

blatantly racist and dismissive.

just because a few bad seeds in a religion want to wipe out american ideals and beliefs, does not mean an entire religion OR an entire country should be just left to the dogs.

since you insist mali is being overrun by religious fundamental islamists, and you oppose them, wouldnt it be in your interest to support the legitimate malinese army?

also, since the malinese situation only exploded due to regular libyian army generals and troops fleeing Libya and grabbing onto mali would this fall under the banner of "messes america causes"

islam gave us algebra the symoblism of zero. our numbers and much more
en.wikipedia.org...

somethign to consider while you are racistly leaving africans to a fate your country created.

A lot has come out of Mali, and a lot continues to come out of Mali. Their main resources list includes Gold, Uranium, and Salt that comes from there. We also got math, astronomy, literature and art from there. Currently their main industry is agriculture, but Gold makes up a huge portion of their exports. Mali is a fairly important country in Africa, and most importantly, it's friendly to Western interests.

*slaps head* I can't believe that offensive comment up above, jezus.

Whether or not Mali "deserves" to be saved, or has some sort of richess to profit from (it does), letting the radicall Islamics take over the world bit by bit would eventually have a very big impact on us all.

Ah, another place we want to bomb, that has rebels "with links" to Al Qaida. You'd think they could at least come up with a better story than that. It's been used so many times it's laughable.

Also, hasn't France got it's own means of moving personnel and equipment? Since when was this any of the UK's business? Oh yeah, Mali's main export is Gold, so it's protecting the money again and the corporations exploiting it. More death and destruction to preserve profits, so business as usual.

reply to post by Britguy


France has its own means called ships. Which means they'd be there in three weeks to a month. They don't have anything large enough to move them except one at a time if they want to airlift them. So they had to ask for help to get armor there. And depending on the armor type, they might not be able to move them even one at a time by air on their own.

reply to post by Bluesma


Of course, it's just entirely coincidental that Al Qaida forces just happen to be sitting everywhere there are natural resources or a strategic point on the map that we (by "we" I mean private corporations and banks in the West) want to grab.

Yep, that's all it is, just sheer coincidence. Nothing to do with people wanting self determination and the profits from THEIR resources staying in THEIR country to help THEIR families.

reply to post by FellowTraveller


this is target practice for France. They will head the new EU army and they need to get some time in....

This really is all that this is.

They have been in every theater recently for this reason. Libya, Syria, Egypt, operating out of Turkey, Iraq, ect...
They will use Africa as a shooting range.

Thing is they freaking suck. But hey, let them get better, maybe when the worlds elite need some show of force instead of sending US boys to die for profit, they instead will send Europeans to assert our western power and guarantee our influence over world markets.....maybe they will start paying more of UN operating costs and field a few air craft carriers to protect international shipping.

I mean it. We deserve a freaking break. Not to mention it is getting old of being blamed for the worlds problems.

Let them be called imperialists interfering in the worlds affairs.

reply to post by Britguy


Except that Mali is a friendly nation and has been exporting their gold pretty damn cheaply. Their GDP is only $10.5B USD as of 2011. The gold almost all ends up in Europe at smelters. The main mining companies are multinational African companies.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Explanation: S&F!

God Bless Mali!

And May God Also Bless France to be the Best and Kindest Nation towards Mali.

Personal Disclosure: @everybody else ...

Principles ... do we have them???

Who is perfect,... who of us is a saint? :shk:

Let he who is without sin .. cast the 1st stone!

Can some members partaking in this thread be anymore hypocritical! [Rhetorical ok]

reply to post by Zaphod58


Maybe it would take them a month to move by sea. However, this is not a situation that has suddenly presented itself, it has been ongoing for months now, in which time France had ample opportunity to move anything they wanted into Mali.

reply to post by Britguy


It's been building, but it was also heading towards a fairly peaceful resolution until a few days ago when it flared up again. It kind of took France by surprise when it flared up, which is why they hadn't moved anything in country. Until this week the rebels had been staying in the north and consolidating what they had taken, then surprised the government by pushing south.

To be honest I am not very happy that the US is being asked to participate in yet another conflict arena but is par for the course I am sure we will get 90% of the blame for the mess as well. I know it can’t be helped the US has more military power than any other nation I just wonder if we will get reimbursed for our efforts or if this is on my dime. The taxpayer.

Oh yeah I wanted to add Mali had its day and I am surprised at the lack of knowledge about it that some are showing.

reply to post by Grimpachi


The US role is currently planned for intelligence sharing, and possibly tanker/airlift support and that's it from what I've heard so far. No boots on the ground, and the intel units are already operating in the area.

reply to post by zedVSzardoz


I got that feeling too. Like France needed to brush up. I don't know why, it just felt that way. Not a good start either, so maybe they were right about needing that brush up.