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.
Translate, recolonization of Africa will take many years.
Translation of the translation …. the recolonization of Africa is a pipe dream that will never occur. However, over the course of many years we will waste lives and our national treasure in trying to recolonize people who've already thrown off the chains of colonization once and aren't very likely to put them back on.
“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”
I postulate that well-known realist Admiral Yamamoto made a similar statement after the Pearl Harbor attack.
Well, actually admiral Yamamoto said after Pearl Harbor, and before to any who would listen to him, that time was against the Japanese when fighting the Americans. And that over time the Americans would surely win that war.
But still, its kind of an amazing name to see as a US spokesperson. I guess Will Rommel will soon be the Pentagon spokesperson, and that George Guderian will be White House spokesperson.
You don't *really* think this has anything to do with the US interests in Mali's natural resources, do you? Surely the US has no interest at all in having a military presence in a small nation rich with gold and uranium deposits, and new discoveries of petroleum fields. No way we'd have an interest in that at all.
How many billions of our tax dollars will we waste in a war in Timbuktu?
Notice that certain words are never connected to the Timbuktu War ….. "fiscal cliff", deficit, debt ceiling. But, soon we'll be told that we need massive austerity measures and cutbacks on vital services and tax hikes on anyone not rich enough to hire a slick tax lawyer. They won't tell you then that all of that is required at least in part to pay for the Timbuktu War.
Quagmire…………giggity
What's the point of starting a new war if you can't drag it out for years to maximize profit?
"…do it right.."? You mean the way we did it "right" in Iraq(twice), Afghanistan, Libya? Well, he does have a point. Gonna take some time to extract that gold and ship it off to Germany.
The real question is why a country like Mali exists at all. It is another example of Europeans drawing lines on a map with no input from, or consideration for, the people who actually live there.