Mali, A New Terrorist Heaven

Mali, A New Terrorist Heaven

With French led international efforts to prevent the capturing of the capital Bamako and to recapture a strategic city and halt the advance of northern Islamist terrorists, Mali, a country that was beginning to show signs of a functional democracy in the past 20 years has been transformed into a safe place and breeding ground for terrorism.

The biggest failure in regards to Mali and countries like it was the U.S. lead counter terrorism training of four sub Saharan militaries to prevent exactly such situations.

Sadly, the trainees of the $620 million program launched in 2002, either defected or joined the ranks of the numerous terrorist and extremist organizations that are present in the northern part of Africa.

An even harsher consequence of the failed operation is that the terrorists who are threatening the capital and that have seized the Northern part of the country are using the skills learned in the U.S. funded training against French troops trying to prevent the expansion of Islamist Terrorism through the entire country of Mali.

However, these failures of Western influence in Mali are nothing compared to the weak leadership countries like Mali had in the past, and to the blowback of the “Arab Spring” that saw powerful fundamentalist terrorist groups rise to power, and expand their area of influence.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday January 19 2013, 5:39 AM EST. Ref: Financial Times. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0