Time will say nothing but I told you so

I bet by writing “I told you so” it hacked people off, but I truly can’t resist it, I did tell you on the 23rd January (I’ve seen you on television, its called interference’) that when Cameron stated categorically that There will be no British forces boots on the ground”, I thought that he may have been telling porkiesThis spurious statement was followed by the admission two days later that “A small number of U.K. Special Forces are already on the ground in Mali”.  Today we are told that the UK is to deploy about 350 military personnel to Mali and West Africa to support French forces.  The figure was admitted in Parliament although the media had been told that 200 troops were being sent.  But of course they are only going to TRAIN the Malian army.

Do you think our troops are being issued with special hover boots so that there will be no British boots on the ground?

I learned today that the UK have offered to build a secure compound (a la Camp Bastion in Afghanistan) for military personnel near to Timbuktu, that’s a bit strange when they would have us believe that we are going to take part in an in-out operation.  Former heads of the British Army are already warning of protracted guerilla warfare.

Of course we owe our support to the French after their great support in our previous battles like WWII, Suez, the Falklands (how would we have managed without the Exocets they supplied to the Argies?), Iraq and Afghanistan.  What was it General (Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf said during that other catastrophic success, Desert Storm,. . . . “You know frankly going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without an accordion.  You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind.”

I bet if Stormin Norman were alive today he would have some good advice for Cameron about going to war on the same side as the cheese eating surrender monkeys.  

The French have now intervened more than 50 times in Africa since 1960. They fought in Chad, in the war with Libya, protected regimes in Djibouti and the Central African Republic from rebels, prevented a coup in the Comoros and intervened in Cote d’Ivoire. Whether to preserve economic interests, protect French nationals or showcase the still imposing power of France, the main tenants of the Palais de l’Élysée, either from the left or from the right wings, have frequently expressed their penchant for unilateral action. But … nobody has ever protested. If … the United States intervened in such a manner, there would be an endless sequence of protests in Europe. U.S. embassies would see angry diplomats coming through their doors, starting with the French ones.  I think Monsieur le Frog has a thing about Africa and may be trying to prove something after their long list of debacles in l’Afrique from Napoleon to Rwanda.  I just wish I could understand what the hell we are doing there?  Just two words to Mr Cameron; MISSION CREEP!

P.S. When I went to Timbuktu a long time ago I thought it a dreadful place, literally the ‘armpit’ of Africa, one of the poorest countries of the world.  I now know that it has a great potential wealth in that it has the third highest gold production in Africa and its mining continues to increase dramatically.  Makes a change from the West helping to TRAIN troops to protect oil exports!!!

 

About Jake

Long retired travel writer, author and freelance journalist. Educated at Wolverton Grammar and Greenwich Naval College. Happily married since 1958, with a married son and daughter, a married granddaughter and an adult grandson. Hobbies rock-climbing, dinghy racing and ocean racing. Still regularly working out in the gym.
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