Have no doubt that something needs to be done:
Although details are sketchy, an unlikely alliance of Islamic radicals and moderate but long-marginalized Tuareg tribesmen seized northern Mali following a coup in the south two months ago. They proclaimed a new nation, Azawad, where Islamists have separated boys and girls in school, banned soccer and television and whipped people publicly for drinking alcohol.
The degree to which terrorist groups – including al Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb and Nigeria’s Boko Haram – have grabbed power is unclear, experts say.
And as I've guessed, as the article notes, neither the region nor rump Mali has the resources to act. And if action doesn't take place soon, the jihadis can entrench themselves in the area and become a real problem. We are watching but this is not a high priority for us but France is far more focused. Again, as I've figured.
So France is the only nation that has the power and interest to act any time soon. But socialists don't do cowboy, right? Certainly not a new socialist president who is still ordering new stationery. But President Hollande has already said France could act if asked by the UN.
African leaders are asking for that resolution to ask for action:
A leading African diplomat says a military intervention in the troubled nation of Mali is becoming more likely and called on the U.N. Security Council to support regional powers in such an operation.
So France could get a UN resolution backing a regional (ECOWAS) request for help that France will then use to lead a coalition made of ECOWAS and Mali forces that follow in the wake of a French force that strikes and scatters the Tuareg secessionists to allow those African forces to reestablish garrisons in the north. In time, Mali's armed forces will recover from the chaos that the coup in the south created and continue on the old path of controlling the north without doing much to make the northerners happy to be Mali citizens.
But at least jihadis won't be operating there. And France keeps their street cred in their old colonial region. And African rulers breathe a sigh of relief that the example of secession was not validated in Mali.
Sometimes all you can do is make a situation less bad. Sorry Tuaregs. You'll get the sticky end of the stick. I doubt the Russians or Chinese care enough to block a resolution that sends France in.
