Mali frees 100 jihadists, but framing this as pure junta weakness ignores that Western and French failures created this vacuum in the first place. Russia's limitations are real, yet Turkey's drone partnerships and a potential Mali-Senegal-Mauritania counterterrorism alliance offer a sovereign path forward that doesn't rely on the same colonial powers whose Operation Barkhane only let JNIM expand. Ditching Western paternalism for multipolar security cooperation isn't failure — it's a necessary reset.