Britain Announces ‘Sizable’ Deployment of Ground Troops to Mali

Insists Troops Won't Be in Direct 'Combat Role'

Concerns over “mission creep” for the British role in the invasion of Mali appear to have been well-founded, but it is incredible how little time elapsed between a transport mission and a full scale deployment of a “sizable amount” of ground troops.

Indeed, it was only three days ago that Britain announced the deployment of a single spy plane to Mali, which analysts were already saying was a concerning form of mission creep, and now ground troops are being deployed.

The deployment to Mali is expected to involve at least hundreds of troops in “force protection” and “training” roles, insisting that sending troops to defend other troops isn’t technically a “combat role.”

British escalations have been expected since a recent speech in which Prime Minister David Cameron announced his intention to start a war across Northern Africa that would last “decades.”

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.