This promotion news is realy quite amazing:
Mali's outgoing government has promoted to the rank of general an army captain who led a coup last year that plunged the West African nation into crisis and allowed al Qaeda-linked fighters to seize the desert north.
Apparently, the idea isn't to reward him for leading a coup that led to the collapse of the Mali military, loss of the north to Tuaregs rebels, the importation of al Qaeda terrorists, French intervention, and blowback to Algeria, but to push him to retire.
I don't know, but this has bad idea written all over it. We'll see if he retires. Or stays retired if he does since as a recent captain he can't be too old.
Having the title "general" (and that's "general" as in 4-star general with no modifier) and lots of spare time can lead to delusions of grandeur, I'd think.
