Monday, January 14, 2013

Panetta: US Has 'Responsibility' to Support French Offensive in Mali

Here we go again, another day, another war.

The White House and Pentagon have a "responsibility" to provide support to French forces looking to push out al Qaeda-linked militants out of northern Mali and ensure the terror group does not gain a foothold in western Africa, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said today, The Hill reports.

"We have a responsibility to go after al Qaeda wherever they are. And we've gone after them in [Pakistan]. We have a responsibility to make sure that al Qaeda does not establish a base for operations in North Africa and Mali," he told reporters en route to a meeting with defense officials in Portugal.

Panetta commended French forces to taking action in Mali, noting the Pentagon and White House were "engaged in discussions" with Paris over what kind of support may be needed from American military and intelligence for those ongoing operations.

Over the weekend,France began military airstrikes in Mali,targeting rebel training camps and other targets. Some French troops are already on the ground and more are being deployed to the area.

9 comments:

  1. Scott Horton has been talking about the war in mali ever since libya was messed up. Its a direct consequence to Obama's interventions in north africa.

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  2. I was waiting for this, these sociopaths can never let an opportunity go to waste.

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  3. It's cool, our economy is in GREAT shape and we can easily afford all these wars. After all, it's for the children. And we gots to get them terrists!

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  4. Wtf man we finance and arm those guys all the time in other areas of the world... hypocricy much? .... jfc.

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  5. In Syria and Libya, we work with Al Qaeda, in Mali against--or the other way around? So confusing...

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  6. "We have a responsibility to go after al Qaeda wherever they are...."

    Do we also have the responsibility to arm and fund Al-Qaeda when it suits our agenda?

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  7. So "responsibility" is the new rhetoric? Good grief. These guys are too much.

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  8. Bob, you should do some research on the absurdity of this. I read an article last week at RCP about Mali where the author was hypervintilating over a cache of 100 barrels of gasoline. Let's see...5,500 gallons of gas (55 per barrel), 5 trucks that get 10 miles to a gallon in wide open desert. Wow! This terrorist army can literally drive around an army of 50 guys for a month on that! Clear threat to all of humanity, Bombs away!!

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  9. You first, Leon. On the front lines - go for it! We're all "right behind you".

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