Ben Schreiner: Mali and the Scramble for Africa!

The French military intervention into Mali on Friday, Frances second in as many years into a former African colony was reportedly seconded by the United States. This ought to come as no great surprise, given the Pentagon's deepening penetration into Africa. According to the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), the Pentagon plans on deploying soldiers to 35 different African countries in 2013. As NPR reports, upwards of 4,000 US soldiers will take part in military exercises and train African troops on everything from logistics and marksmanship to medical care. The Malian Army officer responsible for the country's March coup just so happened to have received US military training. Of course, the US military already has a significant on the ground presence in Africa. For instance, the busiest Predator drone base outside of the Afghan war zone with 16 drone flights a day is located at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. But as the Army Times notes, the region in many ways remains the Army's last frontier, and in order to satiate the US appetite for global "power projection," no frontiers are to be left unconquered. Thus, as a June report in the Washington Post revealed, the preliminary tentacles of the US military already extend across Africa. As the paper reported, US surveillance planes are currently operating out of clandestine bases in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya, with plans afoot to open a new base in South Sudan. The Post reported further that the Pentagon is spending $8.1 million to upgrade a forward operating base and airstrip in Mauritania, on the western edge of the Sahara. The base is near the border with strife torn Mali. With such assets already in place, the Pentagon was in position to not only second France's intervention into Mali, but as the New York Times reported, to weigh a broad range of options to support the French effort, including enhanced intelligence sharing and logistics support. Illuminating what such US support may come to eventually look like in Mali, J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council's Africa Center in Washington and a senior strategy advisor to AFRICOM, commented: "Drone strikes or airstrikes will not restore Mali's territorial integrity or defeat the Islamists, but they may be the least bad option."