Mali residents to French troops: Never leave
“I’ve told the children not to play with the trucks but I can’t stop them,” said Adama Nantume, a retired farmer whose home was blackened by the laser-guided air strikes that landed meters from his door. “Everyone here is happy about what the French have done.”…
France says its military will leave once the Islamists are defeated and Mali is returned to stability, with the aid of an African force. But many Diabaly residents never want them to go.
“I hope that the French stay for eternity. If they leave, I will leave,” said Alou Gindou, a 46-year-old driver. “If it were not for the French, we would not be sitting here today.”
Many residents waved and roadside boutiques flew the tricolor flag as a column of French armored personnel carriers, jeeps and supply trucks trundled north along the route from the capital Bamako to reinforce Diabaly on Thursday.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
The French are going to leave.
This is going to get very ugly soon and guess what happens next.
CorporatePiggy on January 25, 2013 at 2:44 PM
Take up the White Man’s burden–
Send forth the best ye breed–
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild–
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man’s burden–
The savage wars of peace–
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
-Kipling
Ted Torgerson on January 25, 2013 at 2:49 PM
why doesnt Mali just return to being a french colony?
ChunkyLover on January 25, 2013 at 2:56 PM
Is that a real quote?
tommer74 on January 25, 2013 at 3:03 PM
Aren’t these the same people that bitch about Europe and the lingering effect of colonization?
Browncoatone on January 25, 2013 at 3:03 PM
Welfare, free defense protection. seems like an almost too good a deal to be real.
IR-MN on January 25, 2013 at 3:10 PM
Indeed.
CPT. Charles on January 25, 2013 at 3:12 PM
Hmmm….
Former French colony.
Independent for about 50 years.
War.
American involvment.
Why does all this sound familiar?
connertown on January 25, 2013 at 3:19 PM
And, with Algeria demonstrated as the next domino to fall……..
GWB on January 25, 2013 at 3:21 PM
Tell them that they will have to live under French tax policy and they will VERY QUICKLY change their minds.
michaelo on January 25, 2013 at 3:41 PM
When it becomes ‘racist’ for civilized men to keep devil-worshiping barbarians in line, hang them for hideous treatment of women, and life as a loincloth-wearing tribal is perceived as noble, God help the world.
The white man’s REAL burden is his own d@mn cowardice and sloth!
MelonCollie on January 25, 2013 at 3:51 PM
That would require living under french laws, and as michaelo aptly pointed out, French taxes. They want the same thing that the hardcore anarcho-libertarians want: all the protection with none of the bills or responsibilities. And the sad thing is they might get it!
MelonCollie on January 25, 2013 at 3:53 PM