Seeking stronger military ties with North African states, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stated Saturday from Tunis, 'We are continuing to participate with these three countries one way or another on military—to—military relations and that is something we value and want to strengthen.'  The three countries making up Mr. Rumsfeld's North African tour are Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco — the Maghrib, or the western Arab world.  The official reason for the Defense Secretary's trip is to continue to forge ties in the war on terror, and to praise the efforts made in that fight by the three countries so far. Rumsfeld continued by stating, "that terrorist networks are attracted to areas that have large ungoverned spaces where governments are attitudinally more tolerant towards extremism and that would not be the case in any one of these three countries." The "ungoverned spaces" to which Mr. Rumsfeld alludes are most likely the Sahel, the border...(Read Full Post)