The Trouble In Timbuktu

[Valin]

Via Meadia: Walter Russel Mead

5/10/12

 

Life in Timbuktu is changing quickly. Five weeks ago, this ancient city in northern Mali fell to Taureg rebels who sought an independent homeland. They were helped by at least one al Qaeda-linked Islamist group. Today, the Islamists rule the city alone.

 

“The ‘bearded men’ are the new masters of the Azawad region. The MNLA [Taureg rebel group] are in second place,” said a former tourism worker.

 

Fighters linked to Ansar Dine, an Islamist group that seeks to install Sharia law across Mali, destroyed the tomb of one of Timbuktu’s revered saints late last week. Some fundamentalist Muslims believe the reverence of saints and tombs is idolatrous: ”What you are doing is haram! (forbidden). Ask God directly rather than the dead,” one of the fighters shouted at worshippers who were on their way to pray. ”They attacked the grave, broke doors, windows and wooden gates that protect it. They brought it outside and burn it,” a local politician told Reuters. “This tomb is sacred, it is too difficult to bear.” Sixteen of Timbuktu’s 333 tombs are UNESCO World Heritage sites, as is the city itself.

 

(Snip)

 

NATO didn’t plan to destroy democracy in Mali while creating a wide swathe of lawless territory in North Africa, but sometimes your intentions don’t matter. As a result of NATO’s Libya intervention, dangerous and destructive forces have been unleashed; old fights have been reinvigorated. Civilians — and world heritage sites — are at risk. Islamist terrorists are finding new ungoverned spaces to call home. Libya’s weapons are missing, and it doesn’t look as if the people who have gotten them are particularly trustworthy or nice.

 

(Snip)

 

 

 

This is a classic example of why the 4 words And...Then...What...Happens are so important.

 

 

As I recall when the unilateralist cowboy George Bush was running the show Mali was moving quite nicely toward a democracy & Qaddafi was in a box. Now thanks to our new and improved enlighten foreign policy sub Saharan Africa is about to become Disneyland for Islamic terrorist, and all those weapons will soon be showing up in the Gaza Strip..if they are not already there.

 

 

3 cheers for multilateralism and leading from behind!

[Valin]

Libya's Rebels Without a Cause

Nicolas Pelham

5/11/12