Mali Is the Next Western Quagmire

French aircraft strafed Islamist rebels in Mali for the third day in a row on Sunday. Additional French troops arrived in the West African country’s capital to shore up its rickety transitional government in the face of an offensive by the militants who seized control of northern provinces last spring and have been imposing their brutal version of shari’a. While the former colonial power’s intervention may have halted the southward advance of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the terrorist organization’s North African affiliate, and its local allies, the military actions threaten to drag France and, ultimately, the United States (which is reportedly readying surveillance drones and other air-intelligence assets for deployment, possibly within days) and other NATO countries into a veritable quagmire.