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Russia just accidentally admitted to its staggering troop losses in Ukraine
(kyivindependent.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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Europe has not been aggresive at all. Being ready doesn't mean you want to go to war.
Many are against reaming Europe, thinking weapon = war, but it's not that simple. Nuke are scaring as hell, but we haven't had such a long period of peace before nuke came.
France is no stranger to military intervention in Africa. Indeed, a cornerstone of Françafrique, France’s sphere of influence over its former colonies in sub-Saharan Africa, was France’s permanent military presence on the continent. Since decolonization in 1960, the French military has intervened over fifty times in Africa. These interventions have ranged from brief counter-insurgency missions and evacuations to longer-term peacekeeping operations. While France would scale back the scope of its operations in Africa following it’s failure to stop the 1994 Rwandan genocide, it nevertheless maintained a force of 5,500 troops on the continent.
Over Fifty Times.
Good god, I'm talking about today, and I'm confronting EU against Russia, USA or China.
Pray tell, how many times without explicit invitation/request by local government?
Because last I checked when the Sahel states wanted them gone they packed up and left. And then things went to shit quite quickly: In some areas Wagner has an even worse reputation among the civilian population than Jihadis (now that is an achievement), and figures because Wagner is not there to fix anything but to make money by "protecting" natural resources they don't care much about fighting the Jihadis, either. France never shied away from throwing down with them, where they were reluctant is stomping Tuaregs, instead opting for endless negotiations and mediating. Which is perfectly sensible because the Tuareg are sane, they want stuff like autonomy within their regions, not massacre people.
Check again.
Operation Barkhane dragged on for eight years. It sparked domestic protests within the first two years. By the end, the Sahel states were in full revolt against French occupation.
The problem is with your language. You seem to think dropping 200 lb bombs on a city to wipe whole neighborhoods off the map constitutes "throwing down", like its a bar room brawl everyone will walk away from in the morning. You don't seem to want to acknowledge that they killed thousands of civilians. A 9/11s worth of people, to put it in a parlance you might appreciate.
And much like in Israel and the US occupation of Iraq/Afghanistan, the response from French allies was always "those civilians had it coming".
That is what spurred widespread opposition to Françafrique policy.
There a) was no occupation and b) not even the Putschists were in "full revolt".
You seem to be talking about the Russian main forces (which aren't in the Sahel), not France. Heck, Americans, but again, not France. France drops training ammunition instead of actual bombs on Hilluxes and when Americans make fun of them ("they ran out of ammo") the French shrug and say "Concrete slabs are perfectly sufficient for pickup trucks". It's baked into their core doctrine, they supply their troops with what is necessary, but not more, because they want them to be audacious.
Are you referring to the Bounti airstrike? Like in you strg+f "controversial" and found something? Then just assumed the 200lb and "whole neighbourhoods"? This is Bounti.
You're either deeply misinformed or deliberately lying.
And... where's the revolt? Did you read your source? Did you even check the date? What it said about the opinion of the Mali military?
As said: The French left once uninvited by the government. Who are Putschists but meh that's usual down there, and not likely to change without a prolonged period of stability. I do expect another Putsch to come in soonish as they're not getting things handled either, as said Wagner is often worse than the Jihadis, and on top of that Russia is way overextended as it is. Won't take long until they can't supply their goons down there.
Did you, btw, read up on Russia's media campaign down there. The French are arrogant, no doubt, but that's different from wanting to rule the area or wishing it ill. What you can legitimately blame them for is a disinterest in building up those states, training their militaries, enable them to secure their own territory on their own. Russia saw an opening for its actually colonial ambitions and went for it.
Explain it to the 2700+ dead that the French are responsible for.
Don't be a Jihadi? Don't try to force your way onto others trying to establish a Caliphate? Are you seriously taking the side of Al fucking Qaeda here.
How do you explain Wagner's actions to the survivors of Moura. "Don't be a civilian?"
And that's just the tip of the iceberg, most of the atrocities don't get investigated at all due to the fucked-up overall situation. It's all Wagner MO though.
There it is. Everyone's guilty once you've flung shrapnel through their chest.
But you still can't imagine why the French-aligned government got ousted in a coup on these terms.
What were the residents of Moura guilty of? Answer.
Jihadis came in, enforced their perverse interpretation of Islam, Sharia courts, dress codes, the lot. Then Wagner+Mali army came, first stomped the Jihadis, then Wagner moved on to rape the locals. Mali army looked on for a while, then stepped in and said "Ok Russians, that's enough, stop it", and it stopped.
That doesn't happen with French forces, you don't have to tell French forces to stop torturing and raping the local civilians, and they also won't tell you that it's a valuable strategy of war. And that's why there's going to be another putsch because as fucked-up as the Mali military is they're not inherently cruel. They just have no idea of how to achieve stability, and were dissatisfied by the progress of the French -- but seeing the Russians, yep, the French are very much preferable. Or ask Nigeria for help instead. China if you can convince them, that'd certainly be interesting. Anyone, but not Russia.
Because you know what? You don't win the hearts and minds of the people if your reputation is even worse than that of the Jihadis. Say what you want about Al Qaeda but they're not as bad as ISIS or Wagner, they do have a sense of decency. A very twisted one, but it exists.