The bloody attack on an Algerian gas installation and France\u2019s invasion of Mali are the result of troubles that have been brewing for years \u2013 we simply have not been paying attention.<\/p>\n
Jihadist guerilla leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, headlined as a new Great Islamic Satan by French media, has been making trouble in the Sahara for a long time, kidnapping westerners, robbing caravans, smuggling cigarettes.<\/p>\n
Belmokhtar was known as a \u201cman of honor,\u201d one of the western-financed jihadists who went to battle the Soviets and their communist allies in Afghanistan in the 1980\u2019s and 90\u2019s.\u00a0 He returned to his native Algeria, minus an eye lost in combat, and, with his fellow \u201cAfghani,\u201d sought to overthrow Algeria\u2019s western-backed military regime, a major oil and gas supplier to France.<\/p>\n
In 1991, Algeria\u2019s junta, bankrupt of ideas, allowed a free election.\u00a0 Big mistake.\u00a0 Algeria\u2019s Islamists won the first round parliamentary vote.\u00a0\u00a0 The military panicked.\u00a0 Backed by France and the US, Algeria\u2019s military crushed the Islamic movement and arrested its leaders.<\/p>\n
As a result, one of our era\u2019s bloodiest civil wars erupted as Islamists and other insurgents battled the brutal Algerian military and intelligence forces, who called themselves, \u201cthe Eradicators.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a decade of savagery, over 200,000 Algerians died.\u00a0 Entire villages were massacred.\u00a0 Both sides committed frightful atrocities.\u00a0 The Algiers government used special forces disguised as rebels to stage mass murders. Pickup trucks with guillotines were used to chop off people\u2019s heads.<\/p>\n
After the uprising was crushed, one particularly violent Islamist guerilla group, formerly GIC, \u00a0reformed itself into AQIM \u2013 al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.\u00a0 This caused a frenzied reaction in the West.\u00a0\u00a0 But AIMQ had next to nothing to do with Osama bin Laden\u2019s Afghan-Pakistan group. But the al-Qaida name brought instant media attention \u2013 a primary goal of radical groups.<\/p>\n
After Mali\u2019s soldiers overthrew its feeble, corrupt government last March,\u00a0the vast north went into chaos.\u00a0 Nomadic Tuareg tribesmen declared the independent state of Azawad.\u00a0 Assorted jihadists, including some of Belmokhtar\u2019s men, imposed draconian sharia law on the north.\u00a0\u00a0 Mali\u2019s southerners called on former colonial master France for help.<\/p>\n
Two months ago, President Francois Hollande declared France would not again intervene in Africa. \u00a0Since granting nominal independence in 1960 to the states that comprised former French West Africa, France has intervened militarily 50 times. French technicians, bankers and intelligence agents run most of West Africa from behind the scenes.\u00a0 There are 60,000 French in Algeria and west Africa, seen by Paris as its sphere of influence.<\/p>\n
Mali is a major supplier of uranium to France\u2019s nuclear industry which provides 80% of the nation\u2019s power.\u00a0 French mining interests cover West Africa, which is also a key export market for French goods and arms.<\/p>\n
After jihadists proclaimed they would nationalize Mali\u2019s mines, Hollande turned from dove to hawk.\u00a0 French forces went into action behind a barrage of media propaganda about brutalities committed by the Islamists \u2013 just as French forces in Afghanistan were being driven out by Taliban fighters.<\/p>\n
Hollande\u2019s popularity ratings, driven down to 32% by France\u2019s dire economic problems, tax hikes, and plant closings, soared to over 80%.\u00a0 Military adventures and patriotic flag-waving are always surefire remedies for politicians in trouble at home.\u00a0\u00a0 Belmokhtar was declared the Osama bin Laden of the Sahara.\u00a0 Mali became a humanitarian mission lauded in the West.\u00a0 The US began quietly tiptoeing into the conflict.<\/p>\n
Though a tempest in a teapot involving only a few thousand French troops,\u00a0 the Mali fracas threatens the unsteady French and US-backed regimes of resource-rich West Africa. Most particularly so Ivory Coast, Chad and Central African Republic, where 5,000 French soldiers and aircraft are based. An Islamist uprising in oil-rich Nigeria is growing fast, a major worry for Washington, whose regional energy resources are under threat.<\/p>\n
Getting into little wars is always easy. Getting out is not, as Afghanistan has shown.\u00a0 Even French generals are now saying their troops will be in Mali, which has no real government,\u00a0 for a long time.<\/p>\n
Patriotic euphoria in France is already abating.\u00a0\u00a0 France\u2019s belligerent unions are back on the war path over plant closings.\u00a0 Efforts to cut France\u2019s huge deficit will hardly be helped by the little crusade in Mali.<\/p>\n
copyright\u00a0Eric S. Margolis 2013<\/i><\/p>\n