French military (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

Thomas Fessy, the intrepid BBC World Service (French) reporter, once again gets to places few do, even if with the French Foreign Legion. A short film clip on patrolling near the Libya-Niger border in the "grey zone" and accompanying longer text:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-31939287

All part of France's 3k strong regional Operation Barkhane, which started in August last year (previous posts in the Mali thread).

He concludes:

The former colonial power, France, today stands as the Saharan policeman and has made it its mission to break the shifting allegiances between extremist groups. But with Boko Haram to the south and an expanding Islamic State to the north, the regional outlook is not too promising.

The last French outpost has some history:

This advanced base is taking shape right next to an old fort that the French army built out of dry mud in 1931 to defend themselves against the Italians, first, and then the British.

[davidbfpo]

A short, twelve minute video clip from France-24:

We take you inside "Operation Barkhane", France's anti-terrorist operation in Africa’s Sahel and Sahara. FRANCE 24's reporters take you to crossroads in the African desert where the trafficking of drugs, people and contraband meets Islamist terrorism.

Link:http://www.france24.com/en/20150828-...-sahel-desert?

[davidbfpo]

An even shorter France24 report from Mali, 5 mins; this accompanying a small French patrol near the Niger border, following up a clue and searching a shepherds camp. Shepherds who after hours turn out to have Thuriya satphones, abundant ID cards and two AK47's. Two men are detained and an Apache helicopter appears in view; IIRC the Dutch deploy them to support the UN mission.

The men are from a the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regmt (Foreign Legion) and the 21st Marine Infantry Regmt.

Link:http://medias.france24.com/en/vod/20...46-Live_CS.mp4

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to WoTR for this article:http://warontherocks.com/2015/10/fro...erventionism/?

[davidbfpo]

A short RAND commentary, post-Paris murders:http://www.rand.org/blog/2015/11/the...y-of-war.html?

Two passages for economy of effort:

What makes the French way of war distinct from, say, the U.S. way of war has to do with scarcity. The French military is highly conscious of its small size and lack of resources. This translates into several distinctive features of French military operations. One is an insistence on modest objectives, on limiting strictly the aims of a military invention in line with a modest assessment of what the military can accomplish. The French thus aim low and strive to achieve the minimal required. Whenever possible, they try to limit the use of the military to missions for which militaries really can be of use. Meaning, militaries are good at violence; if violence is what is required, then send in the military. Otherwise, not. The French military abhors mission creep and want no part in things such as 'nation building.'

They strive for sufficiency and hope to achieve limited goals through the application of the smallest possible measure of force, what they refer to as “juste mésure,” i.e. just enough to get the job done, and no more. This requires knowing how much is enough, not to mention accepting risk that Americans would prefer not to run and largely do not have to.