E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

French Opposition Restless as Mali Mission Creep Fears Mount
[An Nahar] The backing President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it...
got at home for his military intervention in Mali was under increasing strain Monday as the opposition lamented that La Belle France was isolated and acting without clear objectives.
Happens just like clockwork, doesn't it?
"The isolation of La Belle France is a major problem, it is the central question," said Jean-Francois Cope, the leader of the right-wing UMP party.

With the scale of La Belle France's operation in its former colony seemingly expanding by the day, Cope demanded to know: "What are the objectives? Is it the fight against international terrorism? Against terrorism in this region? Is it to achieve the reunification of Mali?"

Hollande "must state what the criteria are for his considering that the objectives have been reached," Cope added in an interview with BFMTV.

La Belle France swept to the aid of the crippled Malian army on January 11, a day after hardline Islamists who had occupied the country's vast north since last April made a push south towards the capital Bamako.

Hollande said he had to make a snap decision to send in troops to prevent the entire country falling into the hands of Islamist bad boys.

French officials, most notably Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, initially portrayed the campaign as limited to halting the rebel advance, primarily involving the use of airpower and likely to be limited to a matter of weeks.

It has since emerged La Belle France could deploy up to 4,000 ground troops in its former colony and Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Sunday redefined the objectives of the campaign in a manner that will have exacerbated opposition fears over "mission creep."

Posted by: Fred 2013-01-22
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=360610