"For years, the United States tried to stem the spread of Islamic
militancy in the region by conducting its most ambitious
counterterrorism program ever across these vast, turbulent stretches of
the Sahara.
But as insurgents swept through the desert last year, commanders of this
nation’s elite army units, the fruit of years of careful American
training, defected when they were needed most — taking troops, guns,
trucks and their newfound skills to the enemy in the heat of battle,
according to senior Malian military officials.
“It was a disaster,” said one of several senior Malian officers to confirm the defections.
Then an American-trained officer overthrew Mali’s elected government,
setting the stage for more than half of the country to fall into the
hands of Islamic extremists. American spy planes and surveillance drones
have tried to make sense of the mess, but American officials and their
allies are still scrambling even to get a detailed picture of who they
are up against.
Now, in the face of longstanding American warnings that a Western
assault on the Islamist stronghold could rally jihadists around the
world and prompt terrorist attacks as far away as Europe, the French
have entered the war themselves."
