Niger Crisis Escalates Hard: Al-Qaeda & Wagner Group!

France Has Much to Lose

Gladiator is the Oscar-winning film, starring Russell Crowe and the incredible Joaquin Phoenix. The movie tells the story of a revered general in the Roman army, closest to the emperor himself, who sees his life turned upside down by the emperor’s son ambitious, yet ruthless scheme to murder his own father (Ceasar) and take control of Rome, knowing full well his father’s dying wish was that Rome return to its origin of a republic.

Europe’s history is bloody.

It is, in fact, so bloody that it is hard to find any period where war wasn’t the absolute norm.

Kings and tyrants ruled Europe for centuries and sent mercenaries to do their bidding… the culmination of which ended with WW2, where some of the most awful wartime immorality occurred.

With all that, many consider colonialism and the period of the conquest of Africa, as the most vicious and inhumane era of Europe’s pursuit of expansion and riches.

The stories of violence towards natives are infamous and the French are a prime example of this behavior in Western Africa.

During their dominant era in the region, they held control over many nations, until both the Soviets and the Americans pressured them out in the decades following WW2, until their colonial footprint was no longer in existence, but they did proceed with what is now known as neo-colonialism.

This strategy keeps the occupying country in a relationship of influence over the conquered, but not militarily. By way of monetary oversight, France still has much leverage over Western Africa, by providing it access to banking, currency and loans, on top of the fact that the French language is spoken throughout.

Instead of just “stealing” (what many consider the mercantilism timeframe to be) or negotiating with natives to purchase their precious metals, uranium reserves and diamonds fields for pennies of what the commodities are truly worth, France exerts its influence by paying royalties to the government and controlling the mineral assets (mines and deposits).

Call it what you will, the French realized very early that the Americans wouldn’t rescue them from the Soviets, who were looking to rule Europe, so they went nuclear very early on and stayed that way, which has helped the country tremendously in times of oil spikes, like in the 1970s and the 2000s.

With 70% of France’s energy needs coming from its nuclear facilities, and with Niger responsible for 20% of the annual supply (second only to Kazakhstan), the French don’t want instability in the Sahel, but Al-Qaeda and Russia (each for their own reasons) definitely do.

Russia, through the Wagner Group, aims to further its agenda to weaken NATO countries, by forcing locals to immigrate to mainland Europe, which is already having a crisis, dealing with the current load of foreigners and Al-Qaeda is after chaos. That’s the M.O., and by recruiting locals and inciting coups and conflicts, it is aggravating the west.

Ultimately, if you’re a proponent of the West and believe that NATO countries, overall, do a better job of investing, managing and dealing with 3^rd-world countries, you want to see them successful in installing green energy tech and lifting the locals out of poverty {rarely works, but sounds nice}.

If you hate globalism, you just want any foreign intervention, but that is naïve, because if NATO countries aren’t present, Russia or Al-Qaeda are.

If you think they could help the locals more, then you’re cheering for them, but no matter what, this is all part of the great de-globalization, happening everywhere and re-writing the geopolitical power structure of the world.

The average person will always get caught in the bigger plot and this is ultimately the biggest tragedy. 

Best Regards,
PortfolioWealthGlobal.com