US Official: Mali Intervention ‘Could Take Several Years’

The US seems to have already found another quagmire in a far off land to get bogged down in

by John Glaser, January 28, 2013

A US official at the State Department told The Associated Press on Monday that the US-backed French military intervention in Mali will last for years.

“This is only the first phase. It is going to take time. I think people should not be into the illusion that it is going to be quick,” said Don Yamamoto, the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs.

“It is going to take a long time and time means that it could take several years. And you got do it right,” Yamamoto added.

Yamamoto’s statements echo what British Prime Minister David Cameron said at the outset of the French intervention in Mali, that actions in Africa could take decades.

“It will require a response that is about years, even decades, rather than months and it requires a response that is patient, that is painstaking, that is tough but also intelligent, but above all has an absolutely iron resolve; and that is what we will deliver over these coming years,” Cameron said.

The war in Afghanistan is finally coming to some undesirable end, or could be, within the next two years. And now the Western powers, with strong US backing, have already found another quagmire in a far off land to get bogged down in, in keeping with the war on terror’s endlessness.

The Pentagon surely seems prepared to milk the Mali intervention for all its worth and certainly for decades to come. The US is already planning on using the war in Mali to justify establishing a base for drone operations throughout northwest Africa.

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