Don’t Treat Mali as the Next Afghanistan, Because It Isn’t: View

The parallels are inescapable. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, they stoned fornicators, demolished shrines they considered idolatrous, and gave sanctuary to foreign jihadists. The Islamic extremists in control of northern Mali are doing the same things.

The fear that rebel-held northern Mali has become the new Afghanistan figured in the last presidential debate, in which Mitt Romney said the country’s name four times. The deteriorating situation has provoked calls for swift military action, notably by officials in France, which once colonized Mali and has six citizens held hostage there. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson has said military action must come “at some point.”