In Mali, the fickle French bomb the daylights from "enemy" Al Qaeda and affiliates, In Syria the fucks arm and fund the "enemy"

That's the way the French roll.  And, France keeps like company.  The rest of EU, USA, Canada, Australia all walk the same walk, talk the same talk.

From France24:
....French forces to combat Mali 'terrorists', says Hollande. French President François Hollande said on Friday that French, Malian and UN forces had launched a large-scale military operation in Mali to combat terrorism and restore stability in the country ahead of legislative elections.

From SCMP:
France launches major offensive on Mali Islamists.  A French force of 1,000 soldiers in a major offensive has swept a valley thought to be a logistics base for Al-Qaeda-linked Islamists near the Malian city of Gao.
Operation Gustav, one of France’s largest actions since its intervention in its former colony, involves dozens of tanks, helicopters and aircraft, said General Bernard Barrera, commander of the French land forces in Mali, on Monday.

“We surrounded the valley north of Gao, which we believe serves as a logistics base for jihadist groups, and we began to search methodically,” said Barrera, who is based in Gao, the largest settlement in northeastern Mali.

The city, 1,200km from the capital Bamako, was a stronghold of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), one of the Islamist militias which occupied the north until French-led forces dislodged them in January.
It suffered the first suicide bombings in Mali’s history in February and has been the scene of deadly clashes between French-Malian forces and jihadists over the last two weeks.
No Islamist fighters were encountered on the first day of Operation Gustav, launched at dawn on Sunday, but troops said they neutralised around 340 artillery shells and high-calibre rockets and destroyed a Toyota pick-up truck.
All access points to the valley were shut off and its ridges secured at 6am (local time0 on Sunday.
France’s 3rd Mechanised Brigade later began the excavation of a thick forest where military intelligence suspects a jihadist base may be hidden.......

From well before March 2013 (when the item below was published at NYTimes)  arms and funds from France have been flowing into Syrian "opposition"  hands.
Seeking to Aid Rebels in Syria, France Urges End to Arms Embargo. France, joining Britain, is urging its European Union partners to meet this month and end an arms embargo on Syria, to allow weapons to be sent to the opposition there....