When you lose your virginity you cannot take it back. Same goes, when 1/2 a nation is swept up into a dark machine after a mere three weeks of very public activity. You can't take it back. It is gone, gone, gone.
A new president takes an oath of office. He threatens a "total war" against Islamist rebels. They now control fifty percent of the terrain of a small nation. Mali is a bit less than twice the size of Texas. The imperial stone in the rebel's crown is Timbuktu.
The correspondent on the ground issues a two page observation to a major jihad portal. The town of Timbuktu is eerily quiet. Nothing breaks the quiet of the town except for the roar of the engines of four wheel drive vehicles. The thugs have arrived. The writer notes the presence of Salafi Arabs in Timbuktu. Supporters of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are also roaming about.
Let there be fear.
Let there be fear.
A "field commander" for Desert Media issues a statement:
"We came here to purify the land and apply the rule of Allah...."
This purification involves the standard PR of releasing political prisoners and the sudden appearance of trucks laden with food to hand out zakat to the poor of Timbuktu. It also involves smashing bottles of liquor and shutting down the cool-beverage-on-a-hot-day trade. The correspondent notes a new financial emirate where the markets are completely empty, but "commanders" are busy shaking bags of bottled alcohol to a steady beat and proclaiming victory.
Let there be fear.
Let there be fear.
Clerics with turbans are bullying women to cover themselves up in a nation where the sweat can form on the brow at the break of dawn. Statues are being chopped, chipped and beheaded.
Virginity gone. But the "pure" will be in charge.
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