MALI : WHAT'S IT TO DO WITH US ?

Now that British troops are on the way out of Afghanistan it was inevitable that our peace-loving government would look for somewhere else to train our boys. Fortunately, a handful of madmen have appeared in the landlocked and largely desert country of Mali and, despite the fact that the UK has no historic links with that country, three hundred or more British service personnel are to be deployed in support of the French who are already there.

Mali is one of those countries whose modern day borders have been determined largely by colonial powers drawing lines in the sand; in the case of Mali, that power was France which controlled the region from the late 19th century until 1960 when it became an independent nation. Ever since then, Mali has been a typical African state, dominated by famine, drought and poverty, military coups, one-party government and effective dictatorship. Most recently, the north of the country has come under the control of Islamic groups including one identified as being a branch of Al Qaeda, known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - AQIB - and the government asked for military help from their former colonial masters a few weeks ago.

 

The UK has no connection with Mali and, frankly, it's hard to see how a country of 14 or 15 million mostly very poor people living some 2,500 miles away can really be any threat to us. Yes, there is the suggestion that the current troubles involve nasty Islamic terrorists but what has this got to do with the UK ? If there's an issue which needs the intervention of foreign forces, by all means go to the United Nations and get a coordinated response from them; otherwise, it's none of our damn business.

 

David Cameron has gone from a position of no direct involvement to sending in 300-plus troops in a couple of weeks; in a few more it could easily be 3,000 troops and the body bags will start turning up. Then we'll get the usual nonsense about our brave lads giving their lives to protect us from unimaginable horrors when, in truth, our 'brave lads' will really have given their lives simply to massage the egos of the likes of Cameron. Why are we so acquiescent to all of this ?