That war is a roll of the dice is a given.  Mr. Amadou Tounami Toure
the duly elected leader of Mali, and a staunch U.S. ally, as well as one who actually
instituted democracy in his country, is the first domino to fall as a result of the Libyan
venture.  He has been toppled by disaffected soldiers.  Why?  Because they were
poorly armed and led, and sent to fight against Tuareg rebels.  The Tuareg are
scattered over several countries in the region much like the Kurds in the Middle East.  
How did the Tuareg manage to out gun the Mali army?  They acquired their new
sophisticated weapons from Libya, now awash in arms supplied by the backers of the
revolution.  Libya itself is a mess.  Doctors Without Borders, a Nobel prize winning
NGO providing medical assistance, left recently complaining they were being asked to
repair people so they could be tortured again.  Human Rights Watch has written a
searing critique of the regime, and called on the UN Human Rights Council to appoint
"an independent expert to document the abuses and monitor the government
response."

Yes, war is a roll of the dice.  After $3 trillion, thousands dead and tens of thousands
injured, Iraq is a mess.  Every week there are bombings, and religious strife is now
endemic.  Christians, never persecuted in the previous regime — in fact Tariq Aziz, the
prominent Deputy Prime Minister, was a Christian — now live under constant threat of
violence.  The spate of bombings (more than 30) around Baghdad on a single day
this week left at least 52 dead and over 250 injured.  Al-Qaeda Iraq and allied Sunni
groups are mostly responsible.  Al-Qaeda itself has metastasized from Afghanistan to
many pockets in the Middle East and Africa.

As long as we fail to confront our major problems with the developing and Islamic
worlds — namely exploitation of their resources (with minimal benefits to the people)
and Israel/Palestine — we will continue to be looked upon with suspicion and distrust
… whether it is Bolivia or Indonesia, Brazil or Turkey, Venezuela or Pakistan, etc., etc.
 
In Syria, according to a poll in an RT report this week, 85 percent of the people
support the Assad regime and do not want Libya or Iraq repeated in their country …
still bearing the largest influx of refugees from the latter.  Of the remainder, ten
percent of the rebels would like a ceasefire as would the government.  That leaves a
five percent hardcore minority which refuses dialogue, and is now resorting to terrorist
bombings.  Is that really the way forward?

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