Frankly, I don't think that a large contingent of combat troops is necessary, or even the best solution. For one reason that only provides a larger, and foremost largely visible target for all kinds of radicalist troops looking for a piece of the publicity pie.
I'm sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense and flies in the face of all reason and past experience. Did the American 'surge' in Iraq in involve sending in more or fewer troops? Never in the history of warfare has any general ever had too many troops to command.
Just because the French are sending in a small force does not exempt them from the realities of warfare. Those troops will need bases or operation and logistical support and those bases and supply convoys will need protection, and that takes men, plain and simple. Those bases and convoys are targets not matter what the French do, and the best way to counter that is by having adequate manpower to adequately protect them.
The country is also mainly a wide and flat desert where it is easier to locate and then strike those hostiles with fewer assets.
That might be true if we are taking about large armored formations, but since the rebels don't seem to have a hell of a lot of those, it can get difficult and tedious finding and identifying rebels forces and distinguishing them from regular civilian traffic, especially once the rebels start making an active effort to not stand out to eyes in the air.
And those groups have a lot less sympathy with the local populace.
True enough, which is probably one of the main factors behind France's decision to go in.
So some kind of a semi-hidden campaign, just driving these forces from important locations into the desert does look like a viable option to me for the time being.
That's only a viable option if you were the rebels or looking to prolong the conflict indefinitely.
Already, without many assets in place the french and malian forces are making significant progress.
It still remains to be seen just how much progress the French and Malian government forces are making and how much of is the rebels drawing them on.
Although I, too, am wondering why those convoys of fighters can escape rather untouched. But maybe that's a political caveat, people don't want to explain pictures of many dead bodies lying in the desert.
Nonsense. When you consider that the French only have a handful of M2Ks and Rafales flying combat missions with only a small number of bombs per plane per sortie because of the distances involved, and the size of Mali, it should not surprise anyone in the slightest that the vast majority of rebels forces are still able to move with effective impunity and freedom.
Just how many sorties and bombs have the French dropped in Mali so far? Compare that to the number of sorties and munitions expended in wars like Iraq, Kosovo and even Libya and you will get a prospective of how limited an impact such a small air campaign is likely to achieve.
French involvement so early and swiftly no doubt caught the rebels with their pants down and probably scored some significant early successes with their initial strikes. But now that the rebels have had time to take stock and start to adjust to the new dynamic, I believe we will see the going starting to get progressively harder and bloodier for the French and other foreign forces.
I believe the French are hoping that the good times will last just long enough to get enough other countries to sign on thinking this to be an easy victory to build up enough forces to continue to keep the pressure on the rebels and score more success and thus attract more contributors. If the French can gather enough followers quickly enough, they could potentially turn the tide and rely on the ever increasing number of combat troops from other countries to help make up the numbers as they push further from the capital and need to hold more ground and stretch those supply lines. Whether things will work out so nicely for them is another matter entirely.
you are right... and French MOD announced yesterday that 4,000 French troops will be sent (instead of 2,500).
