State of Emergency declared in Mali
 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/11/world/...nce/index.html

Looks like France will be assisting in the effort to fight the Tuaregs.

The Tuaregs?
 

".....Tuareg rebels retreated from the well-armed militants but have vowed to fight back and establish in the north their own country, which they call Azawad........"

The Tuaregs may have started it but even they are turned off by the extremists.

Hmmm, let's see now. This sounds strangely familiar. Former French colony, fighting rebel forces? Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah - Dien Bien Phu maybe?

Any bets on how long it will take them to F' this up? :munchin

Going to keep an eye on this.

France is waging war against AQIM, something we've (USA) never done, and you're taking bets?

I, for one, am on Frances' side and wish them success.

Are you sure about that? ; )

Well, I know what I know but I don't know what hasn't ever been made public.

CNN just said that US forces will be assisting France in transporting combat troops to the area. No details, just speculation that it may involve refueling French AC or using USAF planes.

We train them to shoot, scoot, and communicate - but we don't always teach them values, morals, and an ethos.

If what GEN Ham says is true, here's a good example of why the core of the profession of arms is so important and why we spent so much one-on-one time espousing our values, morals, and the ethos of a professional army in a democratic society to the El Salvadorans during Label Flex II.

Richard :munchin

Mali Crisis: US Admits Mistakes In Training Local Troops
BBCNews, 25 Jan 2013

Gen Carter Ham of United States Africa Command (Africom) said its forces had failed to train Malian troops on "values, ethics and a military ethos".

He was speaking after reports of abuses by Mali government troops taking part in the French-led counter-offensive.

Meanwhile, air strikes have been reported near the northern city of Gao.

The militant stronghold came under fire as the military operation entered its third week.

Islamists seized the north of Mali last year and have imposed a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law, on its inhabitants.

France intervened militarily on 11 January to stop them advancing further south.

'Military Ethos'

However, human rights groups have since accused Malian troops of killing Arabs and ethnic Tuaregs as they advance north.

The claims caused alarm in the West, particularly in the US, which has been training troops in Mali and neighbouring countries to tackle the militant threat for several years.

Gen Ham said Malian troops were given plenty of tactical training, but not enough ethics training.

"We were focusing our training almost exclusively on tactical or technical matters," he told a forum at Washington's Howard University on Thursday.

"We didn't spend probably the requisite time focusing on values, ethics and a military ethos."

The general said not enough was done to convince Malian recruits that "when you put on the uniform of your nation, you accept the responsibility to defend and protect that nation, to abide by the legitimate civilian authority that has been established, to conduct yourselves according to the rule of law".

"We didn't do that to the degree that we needed to," he added

Mali's army staged a coup in March 2012.

In the chaos which followed, Islamist militants and secular rebels extended their control of the whole of the north - an area of the Sahara Desert larger than France - while the army hardly put up any resistance.

Islamist Bases Targeted

Meanwhile, French TV has been carrying grainy images of air strikes which the military said was near the city of Gao.

Malian and Niger security sources also reported the strikes, saying two Islamist bases with fuel stocks and weapon dumps near Gao had been destroyed.

French and Malian troops also staged joint patrols for the first time, in the town of Douentza west of Gao, the AFP news agency said, quoting Malian sources.

The BBC's Mark Doyle in Mali says a big international troop build-up is continuing ahead of a probable French-led air and ground offensive against Gao and other desert cities.

There are currently about 2,000 French troops in Mali.

An armed column of Chadian soldiers is making its way to Mali overland and more than 1,000 Nigerian soldiers are expected there too.

AFP is also reporting that Islamist groups have blown up the strategic Tassiga bridge over the River Niger, near the border with Niger and on the road to Gao.

"No-one can pass to Niger or come to Gao," transport business owner Abdou Maiga told the agency.

The UN refugee agency says more than 7,000 civilians have fled to neighbouring countries since 10 January to escape the fighting.

In another development, Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi has unveiled a proposal for a peaceful resolution to the Mali conflict.

The five-point plan includes political negotiations, economic and development initiatives and co-ordinated relief efforts. President Morsi has spoken against military intervention in Mali.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-afri...71#TWEET552451

Unadulterated ignorance, if not prevarication.

Not only are we required to vet the HN personnel for Human Rights violations before any training, but one of the first classes the we teach is Human Rights.

The Malian culture, as is typical of such fourth (or fifth) world paradises, is one of graft, corruption, and laziness. The US troops they meet are probably the only professional military personnel they have ever met who are not corrupt, and they will be there only a few months, at most.

The ones we have trained have suffered from poor / inadequate equipment, lack of maintenance, inadequate facilities, inconsistent leadership, absence of strategic, operational, and tactical guidance, tribalism, religious conflicts, greed, corruption, and dedication to a plethora of requirements other than training, as are the majority of JCETs we conduct. The HN purpose of these events seems, in most cases, to be to extract the maximum financial benefit from the training that we will tolerate.

This is what has affected their fighting abilities, and more importantly, their morale. Not Human Rights and ethics classes. Assuming that mandatory training would change their behavior (and that is a very far stretch), the people who are exhibiting serious ethical problems such as graft and corruption are far senior to the troops we have been interacting with. Maybe a senior US official needs to come train the senior HN leadership on ethics. They are not going to learn it from a US Army Captain who meets them only at graduation (maybe).

I suspect that it is difficult to be a motivated soldier when your leadership is feathering their nests as best they can and looking out for themselves first, foremost, and always.

Just my .02, YMMV.

TR

IIRC
 

is this the same GO that had his finger up his ass regarding Bengahzi? Just wondering.:mad:

Then maybe you shouldn't use absolutes when admittedly you know that you may not know it all... ;)

Crip

French-led troops 'take Timbuktu airport'
 

French-led troops 'take Timbuktu airport'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21227053

"French-led troops in Mali have seized the airport in Timbuktu, as they move to capture the historic city from militant Islamists, officials say.

The troops encountered no resistance as they headed towards the city, where a building housing ancient manuscripts has reportedly been set on fire..........."

It appears the militants are melting back into the north and dispersing.

There are better ways to fight AQIM than to support a fundamentally corrupt Mali government despite what our French ally or NATO would desire.

My point is that this situation in Mali is very similar to that which evolved in VN after WWII (and for some of the same reasons) that ultimately led to an intractable political and military problem.

Let me make it very, very clear to you - I never said that we are not or should not be fighting AQIM. But supporting the corrupt Mali government against the Taureg rebellion is NOT the best strategy IMO. Let the French extract themselves from that tar baby.

JMHO, we should have supported the Tauregs. If we had done so AQIM would not have the opportunity they now have. There still may be an opportunity to do so. Just not aware of the current situation. Maybe it's too late. Maybe not.

But, let me ask you, what do you think the outcome would have been had we supported a former WWII ally (Ho Chi Minh) in his initial quest to gain Western support to unite his country?

The Tauregs are an oppressed people by a corrupt government IMO. As always my sentiment is with the oppressed peoples of this world.

De Oppresso Liber