Mali Divided -- Arab Spring Frustrated

Following the ouster of Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddhafi, rebel forces have descended into Eastern Mali. This impoverished country, rife with corruption and poverty, served as a brief escape for Gaddhafi's disgraced family

The Tuareg forces have forced the hand of a provisional government in the West African state, which rose to power following a sudden military coup of the previous leadership. Rebeling against the lack of adequate supplies for the troops, the Malian military took control, yet even in the midst of their power grab, the Taureg rebels muscled their way into power in key cities, including Kidal, Timbuktu, and Gao.

The Arab Spring, turned stagnant Islamist winter, seems to be reviving terrorist sympathies through Western Africa, including the Maghreb, a region including Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Al-Qaeda of the Maghreb has already plotted taking control in the region, taking advantage of the growing instability.

From Sudan to Egypt to Morocco, the instability of Arab nations in the wake of social and cultural upheaval has not welcomed the trend of free peoples and democratic government, as originally expected by well-meaning but short-sighted intellects. Tribalism mixed with socialist tendencies and authoritarian political cultures have impeded the likelihood of liberal institutions replacing African tyrannies and dictatorships.

Even in the United States, the gradual expansion of suffrage, property rights, and the implementation and enforcement of the Bill of Rights did not occur immediately. A grueling civil war nearly destroyed the country, potentially dividing the nation between two regions of the country which had drifted apart subtly over decades.

The seasoned combat experience of the Tuareg rebels, combined with the disarray of surrounding governments in West Africa, only emphasize the lack of will and resources to establish order and return full autonomy of the the eastern section of the country under Mali's capital in Bamako.

The naive hopes of the Arab Spring have been dashed for the long term, and now neighboring nations have been swept into the unseasonal regime changes which menace the more stable, the barely less liberal, governments of West Africa.