The Trump administration is internally considering military intervention in another country.
If approved, Mali would become the eighth nation where President Donald Trump has authorized military operations since taking office, according to the Washington Post.
The intervention would further contradict his campaign promises to end America's endless wars.
National Security Council counterterrorism director Sebastian Gorka is pushing hard for action against JNIM, an al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group, while others urge caution.
JNIM has become the region's most formidable militant force, expanding across coastal West African nations.
Mali, a landlocked nation of nearly 25 million, has been plagued by Islamist violence and its own junta government employing Russian mercenaries.
"Any direct U.S. military involvement in Mali runs the risk of hostilities with Russian forces in the region. It also could require deconfliction efforts between Washington and Moscow akin to ones that existed in Syria during that country’s civil war," the Washington Post wrote.
The timing is politically catastrophic, given Trump's Iran war has already fractured his Republican base. It would also add an eighth military engagement amid inflation concerns, which could accelerate political erosion evident in recent polling.
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