U.S. aid policy contributed to the coup in Mali which led to an al-Qaeda group trying to take over the country. The State Department blew this one.
U.S. efforts to help the Malians secure their national territory failed spectacularly the first time. Until March 2012, when a cataclysmic military coup caused the State Department to suspend all assistance, the U.S. concentrated its aid on Mali’s economic and social development, on the theory that extremism could best be defeated by alleviating poverty. In 2011, the U.S. spent $221 million on irrigation, transportation, education, health and other development initiatives. It spent less than $4 million for security programs. Much of that sum, moreover, went to development projects that purported to curb extremism.
No comments:
Post a Comment