Been a bunch of threads about it since the invasion... errr, liberation... but no traction at all. I guess Lance Armstrong is more important.

-- Mal

may differ from your censored news over there.

asked for France to come. How is that an invasion?

east. 'We did that in Nam, it didn't work', they said.

What gives, Dipsy? What does Mali have that France wants? This one's been under my radar, too.

are substantial amounts of gold and the fact that all farmland had been appropriated by the government and mainly turned over to sugar production for export as ethanol to the west.

But war for uranium is at least not bad if not absolutely good. Areva, the french mining company lost its exclusive contract for Niger's uranium a few years ago. You may remember Niger and its uranium deposits, which made such big headlines back when the WarChimp said Iraq was trying to get some, and his government was caught lying about that, as well as being caught illegally revealing the identity of a CIA covert agent, a Mrs. Valerie Plame? Well, next door to Niger sits Mali. Mali has uranium mines too, and they are generally in the north of the country where the Tuareg rebellion is centered. As you may know, France was the colonial master there in Mali - which it called graciously called Soudan Francais or the French Sudan, for 70 years expropriating resources freely as they wished. France granted independence to the region including Mali and neighboring states under its control in 1960. It began to build a vast civilian atomic energy program, however, in the two decades following the loss of its West African colonies. The special relationship of France to W. Africa enabled them to obtain the fuel for this project on very advantageous terms. How so? Well, consider that the interim government of Mali, which has "invited" French military assistance, was in part appointed by French diplomats.
Today, 75% of France's electrical generation comes from atomic power and it is an electricity exporter to other European states because of it. But that all runs on uranium, and as I mentioned before, France's privileged access to Niger's uranium is at an end, thus increasing the price for its energy supply. And there is Mali with its uranium and no government.

So you can see how making a war for uranium is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than the moral quagmire of a war for petroleum.

That makes it easier for the politicians and their handlers.