In the latest sign of an emerging regional collaboration, five countries within the Sahel — Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad — announced recently that they would create three border areas for military patrols and operations. French troops are advising and assisting these units.
The Trump administration, which is already fighting the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria and weighing whether to send several thousand more American troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, has been only too eager to continue Obama-era policies of providing financial, logistical and intelligence support to France in this region. By doing so, it hopes to avoid having to put American combat forces on the ground in yet another global hot spot.
That's fine with me. France didn't take the lead in Libya after the Paris terror attacks in 2015, but southwest of that France is stepping up in their former colonial region.
France didn't send troops to Iraq and did little fighting in Afghanistan (although their help is certainly appreciated), so we don't owe the French more than logistics and intelligence support if that is all that is needed.
And we can take direct action when our interests require it.
