Progressive Geographies

In The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald discusses the intervention in Mali:

As French war planes bomb Mali, there is one simple statistic that provides the key context: this west African nation of 15 million people is the eighth country in which western powers – over the last four years alone – have bombed and killed Muslims – after Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and the Phillipines (that does not count the numerous lethal tyrannies propped up by the west in that region). For obvious reasons, the rhetoric that the west is not at war with the Islamic world grows increasingly hollow with each new expansion of this militarism. But within this new massive bombing campaign, one finds most of the vital lessons about western intervention that, typically, are steadfastly ignored.

France’s intervention in Mali over the last few days hasn’t received that much notice in the Anglophone press. It has now been joined by Britain, providing logistical support and supplies, which may change that. The Observer has the story here, and there is a BBC report here. Much should be said about the depiction of any separatist or rebel group as terrorists, the linking of just about any Islamic group to al-Qaeda, about the absolute valorisation of the territorial integrity of the state, and the colonial power or powers getting involved again, even if at the behest of the government and with UN sanction. The intervention precedes a planned multi-national African force later this year.

Juan Cole at Informed Comment has some useful discussion and links.