Worried yet? I'm thinking back to the Iraq War's prelude, when Middle East experts in the U.S. State Department warned that an assault on Baghdad would have an effect in the Muslim world akin to pounding your fist into a hornet nest.
The Taliban-like Islamist movement battling for control of Mali that prompted French intervention this week is one of many radical armed groups fighting insurgencies or conducting terrorist campaigns across North Africa, the Middle East and the heart of South Asia. In addition to the longtime flashpoint in Israel, at least a dozen other countries in this sprawling territory are reeling with violence that ranges from simmering to boiling over: Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
It's getting hard to imagine successful strategies to end the bleeding any time soon, nevermind look forward to the end of Islamic fundamentalists seeking to create nation-states governed under Sharia law. Eleven years after the United States launched its War on Terrorism in response to 9/11, radical Islamic groups and national movements continue to pose a grave threat to peace around the globe.
No comments:
Post a Comment