Ajami writes (tip to Instapundit):
[The] anti-American protests that broke upon 20 nations this past week must be reckoned a grand personal failure for Barack Obama, and a case of hubris undone.
No American president before this one had proclaimed such intimacy with a world that stretches from Morocco to Indonesia. From the start of his administration, Mr. Obama put forth his own biography as a bridge to those aggrieved nations. He would be a "different president," he promised, and the years he lived among Muslims would acquit him—and thus America itself. He was the un-Bush.
And the problem is more than just America's. It's a problem for the president's reelection campaign (again, via Instapundit):
The repercussions of declaring that the Benghazi attack was a planned terrorist assault on the United States would be extensive. For starters, it would raise questions about the Obama administration’s precautions in a volatile region and its preparedness for anti-US strikes in an area known to harbor Al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist elements.
More broadly, it could call into question President Obama’s Middle East policy in the wake of the Arab awakening. Some Republican critics are already tarring the policy as too weak and dismissive of the threats that the region’s tumult presents.
Likely links between al Qaeda present in Mali with those who carried out the Benghazi attacks on the consulate and "secure" safe house provide President Obama with an opportunity to do more than beg for forgiveness in Pakistan (of all places). We can tag along with France, which has promised logistics support, and take a more active role than we likely wanted on September 10, 2012:
[French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian] said the initiative for military intervention would come from African states, saying "clearly, that is being developed."
The French defense minister noted that logistical support means indirect support, sending material, but not men.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been considering sending 3,300 regional troops to help restore order in northern Mali.
It isn't even clear if ECOWAS is more concerned about the Tuareg rebellion (and al Qaeda presence) than about the coup in Mali that allowed the north to secede.
I still don't think that ECOWAS has the power to retake the north. And the Mali government sure doesn't. Unless the Tuaregs have been persuaded to turn on the jihadis in exchange for more autonomy within Mali, that is. Then, France might get away with logistics support only.
But any counter-attack is nonetheless an opportunity for US forces to strike jihadi targets in Mali in order to insulate the president from charges of weakness and to strike back against Islamists nutballs who failed to appreciate President Obama's unique biography and ability to heal the rift between the Islamic and Western worlds.
We don't even care if the ECOWAS/French/Mali counter-attack works. We have no interest in committing our forces to maintain the existing borders of Mali or Mali unity. But it is a chance to strike back to gain a bit of revenge on those who killed Americans.
Now, it's personal. Now, it's a war.
