Mali: Blowback From Libya

Dissent, discontent, and diatribes on the American Empire

Is the US’s new war in Mali blowback from Libya?

How did we get to Mali? Blowback and unintended consequences played key roles.
When the president decided to use the US military to attack Libya in 2011,
Congress was not consulted. The president claimed that UN and NATO authority for
the use of US military force were sufficient and even superior to any kind of
Congressional declaration. Congress once again relinquished its authority, but
also its oversight power, by remaining silent. That meant the difficult
questions such as why is the action necessary, what would it entail, and what
kind of unintended consequences might we see if the operation does not go
exactly as planned, were neither asked nor answered.

When Gaddafi was overthrown in Libya, many fighters from Mali who had lived in
Libya and been trained by Gaddafi’s military returned to their home country
with sophisticated weapons and a new determination to continue their fight for
independence for northern Mali. Thus the France-initiated action against Libya
in 2011 led to new violence and instability in Mali that France decided it must
also address. Shortly after the French attack on Mali, rebels in Algeria
attacked a BP gas facility in retaliation for their government’s decision to
allow foreign military to fly over Algerian territory en route to Mali. Thus the
action in Mali to solve the crisis created by the prior action in Libya is
turning into a new crisis in Algeria. This is the danger of interventionism and,
as we saw in Vietnam more than four decades ago, it threatens to drag the US
further into the conflict. And Congress is AWOL.

There is a reason why the framers of our Constitution placed the authority to
declare war strictly with the Legislative Branch of government. They knew well
that kings were all too willing to go to war without the consent of those who
would do the killing and dying — and funding. By placing that authority in
Congress, the people’s branch of government, they intended to blunt the
executive branch’s enthusiasm toward overseas adventurism. The consequences of
this steady erosion of our system toward the unitary executive are dire.

Meanwhile, the Predator-in-Chief is looking to build a new drone base on the Mali-Niger border, as the Empire looks to play with its new killing machines in even more starving countries.

Now is as good as time as ever to buy some General Atomics stock; even with debts too high to even fathom and a dollar that is crumbling, it looks like the empire will be the last thing Washington will ever give up.