This doesn’t have the ring of an imperialist adventure about it somehow.

"The tide of war is receding," U.S. President Barack Obama continues to insist, plumbing the depths of the American capacity for self-delusion and finding it, so far, bottomless. Canada, meanwhile, proves no more useful to the French military operation that is kicking jihadist backside in Mali, but it turns out the French and their British and African allies don't need much help anyway. That's the subject of my Ottawa Citizen column this week: Vive la France.