Chowing,

Does everything have to revolve around America?

General Ham is free to say what he likes but if the metric for measuring America's concern about BH is real or imaginary links to Al Qaeda then American reasoning and policy in the Sahel region is badly flawed.

I appreciate that America needs to have an American centric foreign policy, but sometimes America needs to do things simply because they are the right things to do. Not everything should be subjected to a binary test of whether US interests are involved.

I am not suggesting that America should get involved in the fight against BH, but senior American policy makers/officials need to understand that there is an entire world listening to their words and the motivation behind them.

America is the most activist major power on earth. America has called on many nations (including my own) to take on sacrifices in blood and treasure to support American strategic interests. If they atmospherics suggest that America is only narrowly focused on what it percieves as its core interests - then well and good, but don't just expect a more democratic Africa to support America with the traditional levels of enthusiasm next time around.

Alternatively, US Army generals could shut their mouths and cease speculating on the internal affairs of African states.