A French soldier involved in the regional anti-insurgent Operation Barkhane patrols on March 10, 2016 in Timbamogoye. © Pascal Guyot, AFP
Stephanie Pezard and Michael Shurkin, War On The Rocks: Mali is France’s Afghanistan, But With a Difference
In a recent editorial in Le Monde, French journalist Christophe Ayad draws disturbing parallels between the French military operations in Mali — which will reach their five-year mark in January — and America’s involvement in Afghanistan. At first glance the comparison is compelling, and in some important ways, accurate. Yet these two interventions present some fundamental differences that make the Afghanistan case likely more intractable than Mali’s, and give reason for optimism in France.
Ayad’s argument relates to the course of the wars and the apparent bind in which the American and French militaries now find themselves. Ayad observes that in both cases a lightning offensive gave way to a grinding counter-insurgency. In neither case can one now discern an alternative to continuing indefinitely to pay in blood and treasure to prop up governments that frequently act in ways contrary to good sense or good strategy.
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WNU Editor: The French have been engaged in Mali for five years .... but unlike the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, the conflict in Mali is vastly different. The big difference being that extremists in Mali do not have a safe haven like the Taliban have in Pakistan .... where they can rest, rearm, train, and regroup. The French are also engaged with every African nation in this region who want to defeat these extremist groups, unlike Afghanistan where its neighbors are pursuing their own agenda to have influence in that country.
