"Africans increasingly want French troops out" Topic

There are growing protests and discontent associated with French military presence in sub Saharan Africa.

The French claim its for peace and stability, though instability and violence is increasing despite their presence.

The more obvious reason is that they are there to protect French commercial interests and access to cheap labour and uranium.

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Without the French and other countries prescence.they would be overrun like before.and as many wabt them out,are just as many who want them to stay.Mali;s armed forces are still not ready to shoulder the burden.

A lot of folks don't like to see cops around since it interferes with their plans.

I heard one Foreign Legionnaire is worth 100 UN Peacekeepers.

jurgenation,

The only reason Islamism has exploded in sub Saharan Africa is because the French and British led the mission to destroy Gaddafhi in Libya.

This resulted in a massive increase in weapons smuggling as well as turning Libya into effective a base for Islamists.

By the way Gaddafhi was doing a better job of keeping a lid on Islamist extremism than the French are now.

Now there's other issues at play. The Tuaregs in Mali have launched several rebellions against the French supported Mali government which has persecuted them over the last few decades. Again a French stuff up.

Now these Tuaregs have chummed up with Islamists and are fed by influxes of arms from Libya.

The French reason for staying in the region is purely economic and pretence to a failed empire.

Most of the French supported governments in Africa are corrupt and incompetent patsies.

"The only reason Islamism has exploded in sub Saharan Africa is because the French and British led the mission to destroy Gaddafhi in Libya".

Sorry, I don't buy that, but it certainly didn't help any.

There have been extremists and radicals ALL over the African continent for a very long time, and I doubt it will get much better, anytime soon, given the strong inertia of the last 50+ years. Much of Africa, like the Middle East, is really a hot mess.

+1 arealdone

Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'till it's gone…

Thresher, Islamism was a threat before Libya (e.g. Algerian civil war). Destruction of Libya allowed it to bloom and gave it access to reasonably safe bases, allies and huge amounts of weapons.

I note you tend to be a big fan of western policy despite it being a disaster for last 20 years that has contributed to greater chaos and disorder.

An interesting conclusion you've made, but alas, unprovable, since the status quo was changed.

Some can also make arguments that things would be the same, or far worse if we did nothing too.

Africa has been a hot mess for 100+ years or so, AND my guess is for many centuries, if not millennia prior to that, much like the Middle East as well. You need look no further than the history books to find out that is true.

Yep Africa has been a hot mess for 100+ years, but American led destruction of Libya as a coherent state was a cluster#$% that unleashed even more hell in the region.

America's mucking around in Somalia has also not helped and Al Sabhab remain a potent force. Recently they even caused considerable damage to a US airbase in Kenya, destroying several aircraft and killing three American DoD "contractors" (aka mercenaries).

I think let the locals sort it out and stop this naive idiocy of thinking "white man can solve their problems".

Eg Iraq.

Iraq is an artificial construct that the world keeps trying to maintain as a coherent whole.

Maybe if they let the locals sort it out, it would create longer term peace.

Look at Croatia – as horrid as 1995 cleansing of Serbs was, it did create long term peace in Croatia as it removed a major source of friction. Same applies in Sri Lanka where the Tamil insurgency has been obliterated without foreign interference.

Meanwhile Bosnia blunders along as an artificial state. It goes nowhere and is stricken by nationalism and sectarianism that threatens to boil over at any moment. Meanwhile it's infrastructure collapses, living standards stagnate and it haemorrhages huge chunks of its population that no longer have any hope that the place can be fixed.

Maybe if they allowed it all to sort itself out in the 1990s those people may have had short term hell but in the long run it would assist with rebuilding.

Indeed studies show that wars and internal conflict last a lot longer when third parties intervene than when they are allowed to progress without foreign intervention.