French forces take action against Mali Islamists

[No Elephants]

Jan 11, 7:01 PM EST

French forces take action against Mali Islamists

By BABA AHMED and SYLVIE CORBET
Associated Press

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) -- France launched airstrikes Friday to help the government of Mali defeat al-Qaida-linked militants who captured more ground this week, dramatically raising the stakes in the battle for this vast desert nation.

French President Francois Hollande said the "terrorist groups, drug traffickers and extremists" in northern Mali "show a brutality that threatens us all." He vowed that the operation would last "as long as necessary."

France said it was taking the action in Mali at the request of President Dioncounda Traore, who declared a state of emergency because of the militants' advance.

The arrival of the French troops in their former colony came a day after the Islamists moved the closest yet toward territory still under government control and fought the Malian military for the first time in months, seizing the strategic city of Konna.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_MALI_FIGHTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-01-11-19-01-58

Hmmm. So France is going to sent its young people to die in Mali because good ole Dioncounda made a request and drug traffickers threaten the entire world?

I guess expending blood and treasure decade after decade in half-assed drug wars makes more sense than taking the profit out of drug trafficking.

By the way, I can remember when I never heard the word "Islamists," only "Muslims." Now, it seems we have to have two words, "Muslim" for the Muslims we like (or at least won't publicly condemn because we are a nation founded not on Christianity, but on freedom of religion and there's only so far our hypocrisy can go) and Islamists when Muslims are doing things we don't like.

Guess it's a little like "Christians" versus "members of a Christian cult?"