French military targets Islamist rebels in Mali

[Kirkland Laing]

So we're now being told that a bunch of beardy nutters with guns in North Africa is somehow an existential threat to Britain and will require a generational struggle to deal with. Or it could be that countries around Mali contain lots of oil, gas, uranium and other goodies vital for European/US economies and we've decided to send troops/special forces/drones in to keep an eye on them despite the fact that this will cause an increase in terrorist incidents. Then when the terrorist incidents happen we'll use them as an excuse to continue being there. Fantastic.

Mali's oil production isn't commercially viable, but it's neighbor Nigeria has oil, the British discovered oil in the Niger Delta in the late 1950s. Algeria, another neighboring country also has oil and it's one of the major oil and gas producing countries in Africa. So good analysis Kirkland, what it really boils down to is oil, maybe we should thank the Islamic militants and/or "terrorists" for supplying us with incidents. Let's keep that fucking oil flowing.

Libya too. Massive quantities there and we were banned from access when Gaddafi was in power. Go figure. A lot of the guys fighting in Mali used to be members of Gaddafi's army believe it or not. When we fucked Gaddafi they headed home and joined up with the Islamist groups there, and the Mali groups are headed by Algerians/Moroccans and operate all over the region. It's going to be impossible to protect all those oil/gas facilities and even more impossible to protect all that pipeline. Luckily most of these groups are crooks first and Islamists second and we'll be able to continue bribing them, otherwise we're fucked and looking at $200+ a barrel.


Also Niger supplies a big chunk of the world's uranium including all of France's. Massive quantities of natural gas in these countries too.

[VictorCharlie]

I guess I'll start working on my French since North Africa is looking like my next vacation spot for Uncle Sam. That ought to be easier than Iraqi bastardized Arabic and Pashtun.

[Mars_ax]

I guess I'll start working on my French since North Africa is looking like my next vacation spot for Uncle Sam. That ought to be easier than Iraqi bastardized Arabic and Pashtun.

I remember my male high school French teacher being rather fruity and I wasn't a very good student. My classmates and I viewed him with amusement. I can still recall how to ask in French, "how do I get to the library?": Comment faire pour la bibliothèque ?

[Mars_ax]

So we're now being told that a bunch of beardy nutters with guns in North Africa is somehow an existential threat to Britain and will require a generational struggle to deal with. Or it could be that countries around Mali contain lots of oil, gas, uranium and other goodies vital for European/US economies and we've decided to send troops/special forces/drones in to keep an eye on them despite the fact that this will cause an increase in terrorist incidents. Then when the terrorist incidents happen we'll use them as an excuse to continue being there. Fantastic.

Mali's oil production isn't commercially viable, but it's neighbor Nigeria has oil, the British discovered oil in the Niger Delta in the late 1950s. Algeria, another neighboring country also has oil and it's one of the major oil and gas producing countries in Africa. So good analysis Kirkland, what it really boils down to is oil, maybe we should thank the Islamic militants and/or "terrorists" for supplying us with incidents. Let's keep that fucking oil flowing.

Libya too. Massive quantities there and we were banned from access when Gaddafi was in power. Go figure. A lot of the guys fighting in Mali used to be members of Gaddafi's army believe it or not. When we fucked Gaddafi they headed home and joined up with the Islamist groups there, and the Mali groups are headed by Algerians/Moroccans and operate all over the region. It's going to be impossible to protect all those oil/gas facilities and even more impossible to protect all that pipeline. Luckily most of these groups are crooks first and Islamists second and we'll be able to continue bribing them, otherwise we're fucked and looking at $200+ a barrel.


Also Niger supplies a big chunk of the world's uranium including all of France's. Massive quantities of natural gas in these countries too.

Mali and the region around it are going to be the new jump-off/hot spot for Islamic nutters for the next 10+ years. They can wreak havoc there as well as in Western Europe, praise Allah and bring on those 70 virgins.

[Kirkland Laing]

So we're now being told that a bunch of beardy nutters with guns in North Africa is somehow an existential threat to Britain and will require a generational struggle to deal with. Or it could be that countries around Mali contain lots of oil, gas, uranium and other goodies vital for European/US economies and we've decided to send troops/special forces/drones in to keep an eye on them despite the fact that this will cause an increase in terrorist incidents. Then when the terrorist incidents happen we'll use them as an excuse to continue being there. Fantastic.

Mali's oil production isn't commercially viable, but it's neighbor Nigeria has oil, the British discovered oil in the Niger Delta in the late 1950s. Algeria, another neighboring country also has oil and it's one of the major oil and gas producing countries in Africa. So good analysis Kirkland, what it really boils down to is oil, maybe we should thank the Islamic militants and/or "terrorists" for supplying us with incidents. Let's keep that fucking oil flowing.

Libya too. Massive quantities there and we were banned from access when Gaddafi was in power. Go figure. A lot of the guys fighting in Mali used to be members of Gaddafi's army believe it or not. When we fucked Gaddafi they headed home and joined up with the Islamist groups there, and the Mali groups are headed by Algerians/Moroccans and operate all over the region. It's going to be impossible to protect all those oil/gas facilities and even more impossible to protect all that pipeline. Luckily most of these groups are crooks first and Islamists second and we'll be able to continue bribing them, otherwise we're fucked and looking at $200+ a barrel.


Also Niger supplies a big chunk of the world's uranium including all of France's. Massive quantities of natural gas in these countries too.

Mali and the region around it are going to be the new jump-off/hot spot for Islamic nutters for the next 10+ years. They can wreak havoc there as well as in Western Europe, praise Allah and bring on those 70 virgins.

Since we went into Afghanistan we've had Mali, Yemen and Chad turn into failed states, Somalia to get even worse and half a dozen other that have had coups that leave weak governments facing threats from jihadi groups (like Mali). While we fuck around in North Africa for a decade another dozen countries will become potential jihadi themeparks as well. What are we supposed to do, invade all of them? Will the ones we do send troops to resolve themselves as successfully as Afghanistan where the Taliban will run the show again the minute we leave?

No, it's all bollocks. But amazingly after a decade of Afghanistan the British Prime Minister can stand up with a straight face and say that beardy nutters in North Africa represent an existential threat to Britain -- that they threaten the existence of the country -- and nobody in parliament of the media call bullshit, nobody gets upset.

We'll do next to nothing in places that don't have any goodies and keep total disaster at bay in goodies countries to the extent we can still get the goodies out. And we'll be partnered with all kinds of military dictators, sumbags and crooks while we do it while all the time talking about bringing them democracy.

[Kirkland Laing]

(Reuters) - France has ordered special forces to protect uranium sites run by French-owned Areva in Niger as the threat of attacks on its interests rises after its intervention against rebels in Mali, a military source said on Thursday.

[...]

Defense ministry officials declined to comment on the report and Areva said it did not talk about security issues.

France orders special forces to protect Niger uranium: source | Reuters

[Mars_ax]

(Reuters) - France has ordered special forces to protect uranium sites run by French-owned Areva in Niger as the threat of attacks on its interests rises after its intervention against rebels in Mali, a military source said on Thursday.

[...]

Defense ministry officials declined to comment on the report and Areva said it did not talk about security issues.

France orders special forces to protect Niger uranium: source | Reuters

Here's the reason why:
"According to a parliamentary committee enquiring into France's supplies of uranium, about 18 percent of the raw material used to power France's 58 nuclear reactors came from Niger in 2008".

[Kirkland Laing]

(Reuters) - France has ordered special forces to protect uranium sites run by French-owned Areva in Niger as the threat of attacks on its interests rises after its intervention against rebels in Mali, a military source said on Thursday.

[...]

Defense ministry officials declined to comment on the report and Areva said it did not talk about security issues.

France orders special forces to protect Niger uranium: source | Reuters

Here's the reason why:
"According to a parliamentary committee enquiring into France's supplies of uranium, about 18 percent of the raw material used to power France's 58 nuclear reactors came from Niger in 2008".

It's more like 78%. They get some from Canada but it's mainly all from Mali. France produces most of its electricity via nuclear power and tries to keep information on the sourcing of their uranium as vague as possible due to the potential problems in the region that we're seeing now.

[Master]

French are going to take back Timbuktu.