Until about a week ago, I couldn\u2019t find Mali on a map\u2014except that I knew to look in Africa. I knew that it was a poor nation. But I didn\u2019t even know that it was previously known as French West Africa. I should have known more, but I just didn\u2019t. We Americans are not very good at knowing stuff about Africa.\u00a0 At least this American isn\u2019t. And I\u2019m not proud of that fact.<\/p>\n

Now, suddenly, I\u2019m learning that France is using fighter jets against a radical Islamic faction in Mali, and I know nothing about that, either. And as the news trickles out\u2014particularly the news that the U.S. has been helping France with logistics, and that they\u2019re asking for even more help\u2014I\u2019m starting to worry. Isn\u2019t this how things started in Vietnam, when the U.S. got gradually more and more involved after a French military debacle in its former colony? Is there a new \u201cdomino theory\u201d at work? Are we\u2014and by \u201cwe\u201d I mean U.S. foreign-policy decision-makers\u2014operating on the premise that radical Islam, like communism, will spread from one country to another? [I\u2019m old enough to remember newsreels that showed a scary red communist blob oozing across eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.] \u00a0In this view of the world, is Al Qaida the new Viet Cong? And, by the way, were the Cold War theories on which we based our military actions ever borne out in fact?<\/p>\n

I listened to President Obama\u2019s second inaugural speech and felt good when I heard him say that America doesn\u2019t need to be in a perpetual state of war. \u00a0I hope he can stick to that conviction.<\/p>\n

I suspect that I\u2019m at the first stage of this news story\u2014the one where I have very little information on which to form an opinion. I intend to upgrade that status. Right now, though, all I have are questions. But at this stage, questions seem more important than answers\u2014especially at the decision-making level. \u00a0\u00a0I just hope that events don\u2019t overtake the president so quickly that he doesn\u2019t have a chance to ask the questions that seem not to have been asked when the U.S. entangled itself in previous conflicts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until about a week ago, I couldn\u2019t find Mali on a map\u2014except that I knew to look in Africa. I knew that it was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1383,172,384,1100,10,265],"tags":[1560,1761,1872,319],"yoast_head":"\n