The Libyan boomerang in Mali

Hot Air ^ | 2:31 pm on January 19, 2013 | Ed Morrissey

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The history of the last thirty years of American policy in the Middle East and North Africa can be summed up in two words: unintended consequences.  The US has found itself pressured by outside events into interventions that have ended up backfiring in substantial ways.

In most cases, one can argue with good reason that the US advanced other policies that more than compensated for the complications.  In Afghanistan, we armed the rebels in order to help bring down the Soviet Union.  We initially invaded Iraq to repel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait and to protect Saudi Arabian oil fields, which led to the necessity of doing it all over again twelve years later when Hussein refused to abide by the terms of the cease-fire.  We invaded Afghanistan ourselves to deprive al-Qaeda of a safe haven and to find and punish the people responsible for 9/11 and the attacks on the USS Cole, Khobar Towers, and two embassies in Africa during the 1990s.  All of those decisions produced serious negative consequences for the US, but we could argue that we at least gainedsomething through them.

The blowback from our decision to intervene in Libya and in Mali (and not just recently either) don’t have any silver linings apparent at the moment, though.  The Financial Times calls this one of our “most embarrassing boomerangs,” and it’s almost impossible to refute that conclusion:

Events this week in Algeria, where Islamic militants took dozens of western hostages at a gas plant, and last week in Mali where France was forced to step in to prevent an Islamist takeover of the capital, Bamako, have underlined how right Washington was to be concerned and just how ineffectual subsequent strategies to contain the problem were.

To the dismay of the US, junior Malian officers trained as part of $620m pan-Sahelian counter-terrorism initiative launched in 2002 to help four semi-desert states resist Islamic militancy took part in a coup in March last year. Others among them defected to the Tuareg revolt that eventually led to a coalition of Islamist militias, allied with Algerian militants from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, capturing the northern two-thirds of Mali.

Potentially, these US-trained officers are now using US counter-insurgency knowhow against France’s intervention force.

One can still argue that the attempt to bolster anti-Islamist governments in the region was a calculated risk, and that the failure of the earlier initiatives didn’t make matters much worse.  After all, the reason why we started sinking money into Mali was to prevent what was seen as a reasonably likely Islamist overthrow, or perhaps worse, the kind of destabilization by Islamist forces that turned Somalia into a failed state for a generation.  We didn’t put combat troops on the ground, so at worst we spent $620 million in postponing the near-inevitable.

However, that’s not the limit of American intervention.  Our actions in the Arab Spring by dumping our ally in Egypt and in launching a war against Libya radically changed the calculus in the Sahel.  Ten months ago, the consequences of decapitating the Qaddafi regime for Mali and the rest of the Sahel was obvious, as Daniel Larison warned:

But the Libyan war’s worst impact may have occurred outside of Libya. The neighboring country of Mali, which also happens to support U.S. counter-terrorist efforts in western Africa, has been roiled by a new Tuareg insurgency fueled by the influx of men and weapons after Gadhafi’s defeat, providing the Tuareg rebels with much more sophisticated weaponry than they had before. This new upheaval benefits al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM), and the Tuareg uprising threatens the territorial integrity of Mali. The rebellion has also displaced nearly 200,000 civilians in a region that is already at risk of famine, and refugees from Mali are beginning to strain local resources in Niger, where most of them have fled. “Success” in Libya is creating a political and humanitarian disaster in Mali and Niger.

The actual boomerang didn’t come from the military training the US provided in the Sahel, which was always going to be a calculated risk against a variety of poor outcomes.  The boomerang in this case came from our extremely ill-advised and reckless intervention in Libya, which turned that nation into a failed state and sent tentacles of radicalism throughout the Sahel.  And what did we gain from the Libyan adventure and the revolution we blessed in Egypt by tossing a 30-year ally to the wolves?  In the latter, we now have leadership that feels entirely comfortable using eliminationist rhetoric against Israel; in the former, we have a burned-out consulate, four dead Americans, and a central government whose writ won’t run in half the country.  Our policies in the last two years in this region have emboldened our enemies and disillusioned our allies, and in this case we didn’t get anything at all in trade for the unintended consequences we have reaped.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[MestaMachine]

" Our policies in the last two years in this region have emboldened our enemies and disillusioned our allies, and in this case we didn’t get anything at all in trade for the unintended consequences we have reaped."

The United States has received nothing but grief from every single one of obama's foreign policy fiascos. However obama has received the personal satisfaction of seeing a record number of dead or wounded American citizens everywhere muslims rule from Afghanistan to, yes, the United States.

In not one instance have any of the perpetrators been significantly punished including nidal hassan who still plays muslim games while being 'tried' here for a workplace incident.

The 2001 hijackers are enjoying a life of luxury at our expense and many other terrorists have been set free to continue murdering us with impunity.

We have a murdered ambassador and three others in Libya who obama deliberately left to die, and now the dead hostages in Algeria who did not even rate a mention.

Treason.

Anyone wanting on or off this ping list, please advise.

Benghazi Index

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[MestaMachine]

" Our policies in the last two years in this region have emboldened our enemies and disillusioned our allies, and in this case we didn’t get anything at all in trade for the unintended consequences we have reaped."

The United States has received nothing but grief from every single one of obama's foreign policy fiascos. However obama has received the personal satisfaction of seeing a record number of dead or wounded American citizens everywhere muslims rule from Afghanistan to, yes, the United States.

In not one instance have any of the perpetrators been significantly punished including nidal hassan who still plays muslim games while being 'tried' here for a workplace incident.

The 2001 hijackers are enjoying a life of luxury at our expense and many other terrorists have been set free to continue murdering us with impunity.

We have a murdered ambassador and three others in Libya who obama deliberately left to die, and now the dead hostages in Algeria who did not even rate a mention.

Treason.

Anyone wanting on or off this ping list, please advise.

Benghazi Index

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[TigersEye]

Yeah, but Gaddafi is gone and we all feel safer now right?

Why do 0bama's terrorism policies remind me of his gun control policies?

[Silentgypsy]

Would you please include me in this pinglist? Thanks!

[Berlin_Freeper]

British Islamists Protest French Campaign in Mali: Islam Will Dominate France and England

[MestaMachine]

But of course!

[Truth29]

Boomerang or feature? Obama is doing a wonderful job spreading Muslim terrorism throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Obama must be laughing all the way to Mecca. There was even a reporter on CNBC this morning reporting that the French are complaining that the US sent them a bill for the use of transport aircraft for the French action in Mali.

[Cronos]

The US has wasted time and money trying to help Moslems. We got involved in Libya when it would have been better to let Gaddafi stay on and slaughter the jihadis and be in constant fight with them

We got involved in Afghanistan and funded and gave arms to the Taliban and Al Qaeda (via the weapons and money we gave to Pakistan)

We saved Saudia from Saddam when that secular murderous dictator could have been a better bet to keep the Saudis and Iranis in check (hint: as a secular dictator, he was hated by AlQaeda and the Saudis and the Iranis yet had the ability to crush all of them. The world would have been a better place if there was no Gulf War I) and now we're doing the same in Syria

Fund only Israel and let the Moslem world go to heck.

[no-to-illegals]

You are correct Cronos. Our leaders never learn, and currently we have leaders who intend to do the most harm possible to the U.S., Israel, and the Civilized World. And the people pointing out what is going on are called the nuts and idiots. Upside down, Upside down.

[Marine_Uncle]

"The boomerang in this case came from our extremely ill-advised and reckless intervention in Libya, which turned that nation into a failed state and sent tentacles of radicalism throughout the Sahel."

Dittos. Dittos. And more dittos.