Obama has set the bar so low that any country acting in defense of freedom in the war on jihad looks positively fierce. Obama has no problem sending in drones to kill under cover of darkness and secrecy, just as long as no one knows about it and he can publicly pretend that jihad is "workplace violence" or that jihadist attacks on American ambassadors, diplomats and embassies are protests against blasphemy violations.
But the world is not following America's cowardice.
France is fighting back in Mali. And the reporting is borderline satire. The Guardian writes, "Air raids continue 'day and night' in battle with insurgents, but French president dismisses suggestion of colonialism." Islamic revolutions have taken over whole swaths of Africa and the Middle East, and the British media invokes such a term. Astounding.
France pledges to fight until Mali's Islamist rebels are wiped out The Guardian
France will only end its intervention in Mali when political stability and an election process have been restored to the chaotic west African country and Islamist groups have been wiped out, the French president said on Tuesday, raising the prospect of a drawn-out engagement on hostile desert terrain.The French defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said a "relentless" fight with Islamists was continuing on Tuesday night and France would stay "as long as necessary".
Mali is in political disarray after a coup last year and the fall of the vast northern desert to Islamist groups who operate a drug trafficking and kidnap economy in several Sahel countries.
French air raids continued "day and night" in the vast area seized by the Islamist alliance, which combines al-Qaida's north African wing, AQIM, with Mali's home-grown Movement for Oneness and Jihad in west Africa (Mojwa) and Ansar Dine rebel groups.
Le Drian described an implacable fight against Islamists who were "agile, determined, well-equipped, well-trained" and could easily hide in the desert.
He said that since Saturday, round-the-clock French air raids had been aimed at stopping the Islamist advance southwards towards the capital, Bamako, and destroying training camps, command structures and any rear bases in the north.
Airstrikes were continuing across a swath of territory east and west of the Niger river. But Le Drian said that in the town of Diabaly, which had seen an air offensive throughout Monday night, Islamists were still "very present" and threatened the south of the country. Diabaly is 220 miles (350km) from Bamako.
Le Drian said the town of Konna, which fell to the Islamists last Thursday triggering the sudden French intervention on Friday, had still not been retaken by the Malian army. The Red Cross said the army had sustained casualties.
France is to boost the 1,700 of its troops engaged in the mission, including 800 soldiers already on the ground, to 2,500.
West African armies are scrambling to join the operation, brought forward by France's air campaign to stop the rebel advance. It has carried out 50 bombing raids since Friday.
A column of French armoured vehicles rolled northward from Bamako towards rebel lines on Tuesday, the first major northward deployment of ground troops. A military official declined to comment on their objective.
On a visit to United Arab Emirates, President François Hollande said France had three aims: to stop the rebel advances, to secure Bamako and to help the Mali government regain control of the whole country. He said France would take a lesser role "as soon as there is an African force, in coming days or weeks", adding that France did not intend to stay.
In response to questions about a return to France's controversial and shadowy role pulling strings in its former colonies, Hollande said the Mali intervention, in an international legal framework with UN backing, had nothing to do with the practices of "a bygone era". He said: "France should only intervene in Africa in exceptional circumstances and for a limited time. That's what we will do."
But he added that France's role was to ensure that "when we end our intervention, Mali is safe, has legitimate authorities, an electoral process and there are no more terrorists threatening its territory".
Asked what France intended to do with the Islamists, Hollande said: "Destroy them. Take them captive, if possible."
