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2013-01-31 Africa Subsaharan

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Posted by tipper 2013-01-31 12:04|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 We've seen this movie before.

Posted by Procopius2k 2013-01-31 12:52|| 2013-01-31 12:52|| Front Page Top

#2 Yes, let's do wring our hands most moistly over the fact that the French triumph isn't a victory at all but just the disappearance of the jihadis. Tusk, tusk and all that.

I'm happy to see the jihadis go somewhere else -- someday they'll get zapped, and in the meantime they've learned that they can't stand up to a real military.

I'll take it.

Posted by Steve White 2013-01-31 13:03|| 2013-01-31 13:03|| Front Page Top

#3 Mali was a key stepping stone to the uranium in Niger and to unifying jihadi control across the Maghreb. Motion stopped but what comes next is iffy.

Posted by lotp 2013-01-31 13:51|| 2013-01-31 13:51|| Front Page Top

#4 NO WAIT! This cannot be!

Blair, moreover, appears to be sticking by the Niger uranium allegation despite the White House retraction, insisting that it was based on sources besides the forged letters. U.S. officials had hinted, also, that other sources had pointed to Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium in Africa, but that none of these leads was considered strong enough to include in the President's speech.

Linkie

Posted by Besoeker 2013-01-31 14:09|| 2013-01-31 14:09|| Front Page Top

#5 Despite their knowledge of the terrain and experience of guerrilla war, the rebels had chosen to fight like a conventional army

The first eleven words are a questionable assertion. Some of them may be experienced in guerilla warfare; some of them may be familiar with the terrain. Given the largish number of non-Tuareg Islamists (who are essentially the 'rebels' this article cites) it's amost certain that the odds of being both are low.

Now they will revert to what they do much better: surviving as guerrillas in the desert

Again, a questionable assertion. Not all of them will "do much better", given that many of them are outsiders. The experienced among them are going to be occupied with keeping their 'brothers' alive, should they choose to do so.

Posted by Pappy 2013-01-31 14:18|| 2013-01-31 14:18|| Front Page Top

#6 The "lighter-skinned ones" seem to have had a heavy percentage of Paks mixed in with the Algerians and Mauretanians and such.

Why would a significant number of Pakistanis get involved with what they must think of as inferior Blacks when they've got perfectly good avenues for jihad in India, Afghanistan and at home in Pakistan? Could it be that doing jihad in the home territories isn't as much fun anymore, even if the Americans are leaving soon?

Posted by trailing wife 2013-01-31 15:54|| 2013-01-31 15:54|| Front Page Top

#7 tw, if you squeeze a partially-deflated balloon, the air inside the balloon goes to the area where there is least external pressure on that balloon.

That it's a land (to Islamists) of "inferior Blacks" is irrelevant. It's that an opportunity presented itself and Islamists took advantage of it.

Posted by Pappy 2013-01-31 17:16|| 2013-01-31 17:16|| Front Page Top

#8 of course the Black Jihadists must know their place among the exalted Saudis and Paks, purest of the pure

Posted by Frank G 2013-01-31 18:29|| 2013-01-31 18:29|| Front Page Top

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