The Logic of Unintended Consequences: The ‘Mess in Mali’ | Ramzy Baroud

[Tace]

Ramzy Baroud -- World News Trust

Apr. 11, 2012 -- The intentional misreading of UN security council resolution 1973 resulted in Nato's predictably violent Operation Odyssey in Libya last year.

Not only did the action cost many thousands of lives and untold destruction, it also paved the way for perpetual conflict -- not only in Libya but throughout north Africa.

Mali was the first major victim of Nato's Libyan intervention. It is now a staple in world news and headlines such as "The mess in Mali" serve as a mere reminder of a bigger "African mess."

On Mar. 17 last year resolution 1973 resolved to establish a no-fly zone over Libya.

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World News Trust: http://tinyurl.com/787dvrt

[denverbill]

1. You know it's odd that I was told it was a myth that Ghadafi had large numbers of mercs in his army.

But now that he's out of power, those non-existent mercs are apparently strong enough to repel the army of Mali.

I'm still glad Ghadafi is gone and think the Libyan people are better off going forward. If Ghadafi hadn't armed all those mercenaries, there wouldn't be a 'mess in Mali'.

[Igel]

2. Mercs?

Baroud doesn't mention them.

Arms, sure. They're useful for repelling an army. And Libya had a lot of them, in depots that were poorly guarded (or, even worse, guarded by those who wanted to loot them).

Then there are the Tuaregs. They're Berbers. They're in the north of Mali. They're in the south of Libya.They're in a number of other countries. They're as indigenous as anybody can be in the area. They once occupied a much larger area, but between Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Arabs they've been pushed out of the better parts of their former territory.

Some tribes were Qaddhafi's "mercs," in that they allied themselves with him. Others--most--were against Qaddhafi. Mu'ammar didn't make any friends among any of them by referring to them a few years back as "Berber Arabs." They're simply not Arab. There's a nascent Berber independence or nationalistic movement that cuts across--rather like the Kurdish parallel--country borders that also has to be contended with. Even if men don't go to fight, other kinds of support flow rather neatly.

And you can never count Islamists, Berber or Arab, out of the mix.

The army of mercs that Qaddhafi was alleged to have were reported to be black Africans, neither Arab nor Berber, the result of his connections with sub-Saharan African states. These are the ones that were almost certainly a myth that arose out of paranoia and a self-serving need to justify anti-black racism.