Right under the radar of news of Hurricane Sandy and the election itself, Hillary Clinton is in Algiers, trying to coax Algeria into a planned military action in Mali to hose out al Qaida's latest nest.

The terrorists have taken over another country in Mali -- as they did with other failed states in Somalia and Afghanistan, but this one was probably preventable.

Had the US not intervened as it did in Libya, leading from behind without much plan or intelligence, it's likely that the weapons from Gadhafi's arsensals and the denizens of Gadhafi's prisons, both of which are fueling this conflict, might have been secured. Instead, they made their way to Mali and now we have to fight it all there - again.

As Donald Rumsfeld said: Weakness is provocative