World View: Al-Qaeda Prepares for War in Northern Mali

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Al-Qaeda prepares for war in northern Mali
• Egypt’s currency collapses to seven-year low
• Fiscal cliff negotiations lead to farcical conclusion

Al-Qaeda prepares for war in northern Mali

Djenna Mosque in Timbuktu, Mali, built around 1300. Islamists say they’ll tear down and destroy all Timbuktu mosques

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and affiliate Ansar Dine arenow in almost complete control of northern Mali, a region as large asFrance, and is entrenching itself to prepare for a war by externalforces attempting to eject it. The U.N. Security Council hasauthorized military intervention in Mali, under a proposal by 15nations in West Africa, but there is little energy to mount theintervention. For years, al-Qaeda has been trying to gain control ofan entire country, in order to use it as a base to launch attacksagainst other countries. Now, for the first time, they may be closeto success. AP

Egypt’s currency collapses to seven-year low

Egypt’s pound currency, which has been falling steadily since theJanuary, 2011, Egyptian revolution, has fallen to its lowest valueagainst the dollar in seven years. The collapse has been caused by anumber of factors: bank runs by Egyptians, converting pounds todollars; political turmoil; slowing tourism revenue and foreigninvestment; and a sharp fall in foreign currency reserves in thecentral bank. The collapse will increase the prices of importedstaples, such as tea and sugar, and underlines the crisis facingEgypt’s economy. President Mohamed Morsi said that the situationReuters and Al-Arabiya

Fiscal cliff negotiations lead to farcical conclusion

A couple of days ago, I wrote, “America is truly Greece now,” and thepast 48 hours have shown that in the worst sense. President Obama hasbeen gloating constantly, bragging that he’s been able to screw theRepublicans by forcing them to raise taxes without having to agree toany spending cuts. The whole point of the sequestration agreement inmid-2011 is that long before 1/1/2013 arrived, Congress would beforced to implement tax reform and reduce spending.

Just the opposite has occurred. The “compromise” fiscal cliff billmakes taxes more complicated, and increases the deficit. (As I writethis, early Tuesday evening, it appears that this bill will passwithin a couple of hours.)

The “Kick the Can Theory” predicted that Washington would do theminimum possible to get through the current crisis, and would donothing to fix the underlying problems, so that there would be a worsecrisis later. That’s exactly what’s happening. America today is muchworse off than it was a month ago.

As usual, expect President Obama, the Congressional Democrats, and theCongressional Republicans to lie to the press, and to declare somesort of great victory for the American people. And, as usual, expectthe mainstream press to be completely in the tank for Obama, and toagree with everything he says, even when it’s totally incoherent.Meanwhile, get ready for one crisis after another in 2013. Reuters

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