Chaos is spreading through West Africa, and it's Obama's fault - Washington Examiner
By: Timothy P. Carney (Washington Examiner)
Unintended consequences strikes again.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
ByTimothy P. Carney January 31, 2024 10:32 am
Three nations have pulled out of an economic union in West Africa that also tries to advance democracy in the region. The development, which causes concern about the stability and prosperity in that region, can be traced back to President Barack Obama's unauthorized and unwise drive-by regime-change war in Libya.
Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso are all run by military governments after experiencing coups in recent years, and the Economic Community of West African States has sanctioned the juntas for their undemocratic actions. In response to the painful sanctions, the three nations have pulled out of ECOWAS.
"West African commentators said the countries' departure could affect trade relations and regional stability and cause pain in the other direction too, on the bloc's remaining 12 member states," the New York Timesreported.
Mali experienced a series of coups over recent years, and these were caused directly by Obama's regime-change war in Libya.
Nick Turse at the Interceptexplains: "In 2011, when a U.S.-backed uprising in Libya toppled autocrat Muammar Gaddafi, Tuareg fighters in his service looted the regime's weapons caches, traveled to their native Mali and began to take over the northern part of that country. Angered by the ineffective response of his government, Amadou Sanogo … took matters into his own hands and overthrew his country's democratically elected government."
The chaos and terrorism caused by deposing Gadhafi spread to Niger.
In 2016, Burkina Faso began "to see a surge in militant attacks," as reported in Foreign Policy magazine. "The violence spilled over from neighboring Mali in the wake of the 2011 U.S.- and NATO-backed revolution in Libya that toppled longtime Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi and contributed to the 2012 political destabilization of Mali."
(The Foreign Policy article also notes that the military that conducted the recent coup was armed by the U.S. beginning in 2009.)
Obama waged his drive-by regime-change war in Libya without any congressional authorization. He should have known better than to do this, because Obama spoke against the Iraq War, and predicted unintended negative consequences, as early as 2002.
Instead, Obama and his party celebrated their success in deposing Gadhafi, and he actually made it part of his reelection campaign in 2012. In his memoirs, Obama addressed his war, but showed zero reflection or remorse for the chaos and death he caused.
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