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Library torched in Timbuktu by fleeing rebels

How sad. I hope no one gets seriously hurt and that all the books can be replaced.

Sent from my LG-VM696 using Book And Reader mobile app
 
There is a bit of debate in the states as to how the U.S. should support this effort. Many advocate a "lead from behind" approach and support proxy forces or the efforts of other allies to handle the problem. I believe the fear is that U.S./Euro nations risk creating a much larger "evict the imperialists!" conflict from a rag-tag, motley collection of violent gangs who take on the persona of Al-Qaeda. Kenya and Ethiopia are doing their part in Eastern Africa, it's hard to find a good ally in western Africa with sufficient power to take out these goons.
 
There is a bit of debate in the states as to how the U.S. should support this effort. Many advocate a "lead from behind" approach and support proxy forces or the efforts of other allies to handle the problem.

'Lead From Behind' has a tendency to become 'Blow Up In Your Face' quite literally when one considers the origin of Al-Queda.
 
The hero: Abba Alhadi.

People of Timbuktu save manuscripts from invaders - Yahoo! News

Abba Alhadi has spent 40 of his 72 years on earth taking care of rare manuscripts. The illiterate old man, who walks with a cane and looks like a character from the Bible, was the perfect foil for the Islamists. They wrongly assumed that the city's European-educated elite would be the ones trying to save the manuscripts, he said.

So last August, Alhadi began stuffing the thousands of books into empty rice and millet sacks.

At night, he loaded the millet sacks onto the type of trolley used to cart boxes of vegetables to the market. He pushed them across town and piled them into a lorry and onto the backs of motorcycles, which drove them to the banks of the Niger River.

From there, they floated down to the central Malian town of Mopti in a pinasse, a narrow, canoe-like boat. Then cars drove them from Mopti, the first government-controlled town, to Mali's capital, Bamako, over 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from here.

"I have spent my life protecting these manuscripts. This has been my life's work. And I had to come to terms with the fact that I could no longer protect them here," said Alhadi. "It hurt me deeply to see them go, but I took strength knowing that they were being sent to a safe place."

Bad. Ass.

Also, most of the documents that were torched had already been digitized.

Manuscripts don't burn.
 
Scott Pelley interviewed the guy that was responsible for saving the manuscripts on the CBS evening news last night. Very cool.
 
Kudos to the French government for not allowing everything to be destroyed. There is something to be said about leadership and doing what's right.
 
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