Another day, another jihadi attack—this time in Mali
Twenty-seven people were slaughtered in a Mali hotel by Muslim terrorists. Rescuers stormed the building and found the bodies; the rest of the hostages were freed.
You can find the details at the link.
Up to this point, I can’t say I could accurately find Mali on a map, although I knew its location in a very general sense. This attack is one in a long, long line of similar events in third-world countries where whatever tenuous civil order there used to be has broken down, and Muslim extremists have taken advantage of the situation to add to the carnage.
Get the picture? It’s a familiar one. Here is some background for Mali:
In 2012, a major rebellion against Mali’s government heralded the rise of terrorism across the country.
It was led by the nomadic Tuareg rebels and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a military organisation partly made up of former Libyan soldiers.
The MNLA took control of the north and declared independence for the unrecognised state of Azawad.
But Islamist groups including Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), who helped MNLA defeat the government, turned on the indigenous Tuareg and seized the north with the goal of implementing sharia law in Mali.
The French army launched Opération Serval in January 2013 and recaptured most of the north a month later.
Islamists continued to operate in the north and began spreading into central and southern areas at the start of this year.
We pay a lot of attention to the attacks in Paris for many reasons, the main one being it’s a Western nation with which we strongly identify, and when the bell tolls for them it takes very little imagination at all to hear it tolling for us, too. But the same bell is tolling in Mali and elsewhere around the world.
We’d better do something about that ringing bell, and fast. And yet our leadership (I’m talking about this administration in particular) can’t be bothered. Obama can’t even muster up the energy to have sounded incensed when he spoke about the Paris attacks; he was phoning it in. He saved his ire for Republicans who oppose him and for reporters who deign to question him.
Things fall apart, the center does not want to hold.
Two weeks from today, I’m on way way to Paris for 6 nights to visit my son, a trip I booked in May. My husband now has to stay back because a project he’s working on will be in jeopardy if we happen to get stuck there. Ironically, the clients just returned from a trip to Paris the day of the attack. The same day our son’s fiancee had arrived for the Marine Ball (subsequently cancelled, of course). I am flying Air France, and truthfully, I’m not afraid. I’ve stayed in the area I will be in on 2 other occasions and I’ve already plotted out activities that will keep me within reasonable walking distance of my hotel. I have dealt with genuine sadness and disappointment since last Friday, but thankfully not personal grief. The lives of the average man in the western world have been significantly impacted because of the positions, actions and inactions of an elite that is financed and protected to the nth degree by the average man. But alas, so many among us aligned with them and brought this about. It will take a miracle to turn the tide back.
Not sure what “the center does not _want to_ hold means — Mali is not the center of anything. Or perhaps it is Obama that is the center that does not want to hold? I’d agree with that.
I spent a month in Mali in 1979. A culturally interesting country (home of the Dogon culture and land of Timbuktu) with some really interesting places to visit, but incredibly poor. I was visiting friends and had ground transport to drive to all corners (except the extreme north) and spend as much time as I wanted in each.
The French relationship with their former French colonies is sometimes difficult, for both the French and for their ex colonies, but they support the African franc at 50:1 against the French franc, and that is a tremendous value for a country with essentially nothing to sell on the world market.
The French also support shaky governments, sending Legionnaires to prop up governments under attack from internal or external fighters. They’ve done this several times in the Central African Republic, in Ivory Coast, and a number of former French colonies in Africa. Three years ago French troops tried to put down a coup and splinter effort in the north of Mali. They were partially successful, but the results were not to return the country to its status before the rebellion. And the Islam separatists are still a problem to be dealt with.
Yesterday’s attack in Bamako is likely an outgrowth of the Islamic separatists’ effort and I suspect it will be repeated. I didn’t see it reported in the US press, but there was a similar Islamic separatist attack in the north of Nigeria (NOT a former French colony) last week. We will be seeing more of these all over the Sahel. Responsibility can be laid at the feet of Hillary’s stupid intervention in Libya and overthrow of Qadaffi, but you won’t see that reported in the US press either.
F:
Yes, the reference was to Obama, and to the US under him.
Bush II accepted Kaddafi’s surrender and small time alliance, in return for Kaddafi surrendering his WMD stockpiles and working to wipe out terrorism in his nation.
Hussein would surely have been reminded of that, when it was time to sick HRClinton on Kaddafi and the Benghazi embassy staff.
The reason why Leftists and Demoncrat traitors want to disarm loyal patriots and citizen defenders here, is because they want Islam to have an easy time killing you. Once you are dead, they can make you vote Demoncrat from the grave.
See how that works?
Al-Mourabitoun, an African jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Interesting F, and right about France’s willingness to intervene in their former colonies. Curiously, the American left never raises a fuss when France kills people without a UN authorization.
Curiously, the American left never raises a fuss when France kills people without a UN authorization.
Zombies do what they are ordered to do. If their masters had seen fit to give the order, it would have been obeyed.
Parker:
Among professionals on the ground in Africa there is a certain amount of grumbling about French meddling in African affairs. You don’t hear it in the US, but then if you reflect a little you’ll realize you hear very little about Africa in the US. As a continent three times the continental USA and with 52 (more or less) nations, you could expect a little news to creep into American newspapers and TV. If it doesn’t involve swollen-bellied children or wild animals, chances are it won’t make the cut. Pretty much the same with South America, unless it has to do with drugs.
If it doesn’t involve swollen-bellied children or wild animals, chances are it won’t make the cut.
Quite right, the Left’s propaganda is focused on a laser pin point, with a mission statement.
There were black activists, actual Africans, in Africa and Libya, who noticed that Kaddafi was going to go off the fiat currency model and create his own gold bank and provide investment support to the rest of Africa. Then America kills him. Backed by Soros and other wealthy people. Did that look good to the Africans? Probably not.
I just came across a pix of a German female police officer on patrol carrying one of the dreadful, evil automatic rifles, and she had a balaclava on. Temp in Frankfurt is only 40 degrees F. Balaclavas have apparently become necessary for warriors of all sides.
And I am reminded the EU met yesterday in response to Paris, and enacted even greater firearms restrictions. I am confident that will make a world of difference, aren’t you?
F,
We don’t hear much. But if the kardashians would only shake their fat butts in Ouagadougous we might put the continent of Africa on the map.
F, thanks for the insight on Mali and the conditions on the ground.
The spread of al Qaeda, ISIS, and other such Islamic jihadi groups continues apace. We have a coalition of 65 countries (according to Obama) and a plan (according to Obama), which we are assured (by Obama) will defeat them because they are on the wrong side of history (according to Obama). We can now all enjoy our Thanksgiving holiday because we are safe (according to Obama).
Barry is already showing signs of Lame Duck status — emotionally.
Hence, he’s only got energy at the microphone for HIS ardent wishes.
He’s not motivated enough to fake sincerity.
“Up to this point, I can’t say I could accurately find Mali on a map, ”
&&&
Think Timbuktu and the weirdest national borders on any map.
Then, you’ve got it.
Think “Beau Geste.”
Yes, it’s in Francophone Africa.
Blert’s right.
The Mali I saw, with Timbuktu, was from the 790 AD though. And yes, slave trade was going there under Islam, way before Europeans figured out how to form colonies in Africa.
“Al-Mourabitoun, an African jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, has claimed responsibility for the attack.” Commentators have spoken of a Jihad Olympics between ISIS and Al Qaida. But oddly enough, the terrorists in Mali seem to have been playing both sides – a ISIS flag was found on premises, among their effects.
Indeed, as I write, CNN mentions that “two Islamist groups have claimed credit.”
Also in Africa is Nigeria (mentioned above).
Is seems that Boko Haram has been very busy while Americans have stopped looking (after their recent presidential election), out pacing the death of ISIS this year.
The primary difference between Boko Haram and ISIS is that most deaths for the latter are met on the field of battle, while the former’s come during attacks on rural homes.
CNN mentions a fresh 10 dead in Fotokol (northeast Nigeria), in a Boko Haram bomb blast.
Just remember, this isn’t about Islam. Hussein Obama tells us so, and we know we can rely on Him for telling the Truth.