The invasion of northern Mali was purportedly another R2P venture, to avenge the lopping off of a few dozen sinners' hands or heads, but this is a pretext only. Already, the French have killed hundreds of rebels ('good' or 'bad') and hundreds of innocents as 'collateral damage'. A life is a life, and a death -- a death. The imperialists are the masters at killing and terrorism. The US cynically ignores (if not actively promotes) genuine terrorism which does not 'qualify' by its definition. Inter alia, it just blocked a Russian-proposed UN Security Council resolution which condemned the terrorist attack in Damascus 21 February which killed 53.
While it is the 'big guns' of the US, France, et al that initiate these invasions and/or arm the appropriate insurgents (note, in the above instances, all the victims are Muslims), Canada dutifully follows in their wake. There is no role for the UN in this postmodern imperialism (where 'imperialism' is just a word, signifying nothing, as the exploitation is completely hidden behind the 'market' and US dollar/ military hegemony). It is not surprising that Canada under its oxymoronic neoliberal neoconservatives has decided to dispense with its neutral do-good image there (however little it actually corresponded to reality) in favor of direct support for the empire. After all, it is the empire that controls (or has pretenses to control) the world, so why bother with pretenses to the contrary?
a version of this appeared at presstv
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).