Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Scott
Although it might help, I must say the explanation - we cant take them out because they've become too integrated - does not sound adequate to me. Ch
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I agree. Then I don't think it is being floated as an explanation by the Malian govt or any other forces in the region. The real reason nothing has happened is bound up in widespread inefficiencies and poor levels of capability in the region.
It sometimes feels like the community here is more bothered by the AQIM presence in the Sahara than anyone else. The reason I raised the point about local assimilation here was that when who-evers forces finally come round to having a go at AQIM, it will have become harder to dislodge AQIM as a result of their assimilation and familiarity with their surrounds. Its been 7 years now that they are in NE Mali.
In that sense my comment was more a prediction of how hard it will be than an explanation of why nothing seems to have happened. One tactic on the part of AQIM under the conditions of a known raid would simply be to bury everything and bomb-shell off into the local community that they seem now to be mates with- and lie low there. Who does the raiding party shoot then? Everyone in the hills of NE Mali? The tactic wont work for the MBM & co, but these guys will already have found themselves a quiet spot that is well out of reach.
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