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User:Geo Swan/Comparison of Iraq War to the Algerian War

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There have been comparisons in public debate comparing the current Iraq War (2003-present) to the Algerian War (1954–1962).[1] Henry Kissinger advised President George W. Bush to read A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962 (Viking, 1977) by Alistair Horne about the Algerian War for advice on how to handle the war in Iraq.[2][3] In a CNN interview aired January 15, 2007 Horne agreed to the comparison that "a major power is faced with an Arab insurgency that has targeted police, public servants, innocent civilians. All of that has preoccupied the Americans as it did the French."[citation needed]

Pentagon screening of The Battle of Algiers

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Pentagon officials viewed on August 27, 2003 Gillo Pontecorvo 1966 film, The Battle of Algiers.[4][5] In 2003, the film again made the news after the US Directorate for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict at The Pentagon offered a screening of the film on August 27, regarding it as a useful illustration of the problems faced in Iraq.[6] A flyer for the screening read:

"How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range. Women plant bombs in cafes. Soon the entire Arab population builds to a mad fervor. Sound familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically. To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film."[7]

The 2003 screening lent new currency to the film, coming only months after U.S. President George W. Bush's May 1, 2003 "Mission Accomplished" speech proclaiming the end of "major hostilities" in Iraq. Opponents of President Bush cited the Pentagon screening as proof of a growing concern within the Defense Department about the growth of an Iraqi insurgency belying Bush's triumphalism.[citation needed] One year later, the media's revelations regarding the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal led critics of the war to compare French torture in the film and "aggressive interrogation" of prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison[8]

Scholarly comparisons of the use of torture

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Several scholars have compared the use of of torture in the two wars.[8][9][10]

Neil Macmaster, in Torture: from Algiers to Abu Ghraib wrote that, early in the Iraq war,

"‘torture advocates’ developed their arguments de nouveau, reinventing the wheel as it were, without any reference to the huge field of historical, ethical, philosophical and legal knowledge that exists in relation to the practice of torture."[10]

Robert Matthews, in Misguided wars: Comparing the lost French cause in Algeria with the US debacle in Iraq, wrote[9]:

The French, to a greater extent than the US, employed their own version of terrorism in an attempt to counter the savagery of the guerrillas and cow the local population. Thus, General Jacques Massu, who was told to use all means necessary to restore order during the battle of Algiers, frequently fought terrorism with torture and his own brand of terrorism, which was dubbed counter-terrorism. The Iraq bombing campaigns, like “Shock and Awe”, as well as other dramatic military manoeuvres and wanton killing and abuse of the civilian population should all qualify as forms of terrorism. The Bush administration likewise justifies this overkill as either part of its counterterrorist arsenal or regrettable “collateral damage” in the all-important war against terror.[9]

References

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  1. ^ "Iraqi Authorities Face Fallout From Execution of Saddam's Co- Defendants; Iran's President Travels to Latin America". CNN Situation Room. Retrieved 2012-08-05. A western power escalates its true presence during a bloody engagement in a Muslim country, a messy conventional war that spiraled into vicious insurgency and counter insurgency, Iraq 2007 and Algeria in the late 1950's. As President Bush reads "A Savage War of Peace" about France's war in Algeria, the author tells CNN what he thinks of the current conflict. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Bush's history lesson". Boston Globe. 2007-01-21. Retrieved 2012-08-05. AT HENRY Kissinger's recommendation, President Bush is reading "A Savage War of Peace," the classic account of the Algerian war of independence, 1954-1962. It holds up as well today as it did when published in 1977, but it's an odd choice for the president as he escalates the war in Iraq. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "An analysis of the new counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq: with Alistair Horne, Thomas E. Ricks, Henry Kissinger and Andrew Bacevich in Current Affairs". Charlie Rose (PBS). 2007-01-19. Retrieved 2012-08-05. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); line feed character in |title= at position 133 (help)
  4. ^ La direction des opérations spéciales du Pentagone organise une projection de « La Bataille d'Alger », Le Monde, September 9, 2003 (in French)
  5. ^ The Pentagon's Lessons From Reel Life - 'Battle of Algiers' Resonates in Baghdad, The Washington Post, September 4, 2003
  6. ^ "Re-release of The Battle of Algiers". CNN -- Diplomatic License. 2004-01-01. Retrieved 2012-08-04. Insurgents fight the troops, on the program today, not in Baghdad but in Algiers, and in the movie theatre. This weekend the 1965 film "The Battle of Algiers" is re-released here in the United States and it's already had a private screening at the Pentagon where filmgoers were lured in by the possibility of learning lessons, if any, from the film for the Iraq experience of these days. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Michael T. Kaufman (2003-09-07). "What Does the Pentagon See in 'Battle of Algiers'?". Rialto Pictures. Retrieved 2012-08-04. As the flier inviting guests to the Pentagon screening declared: "How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range. Women plant bombs in cafes. Soon the entire Arab population builds to a mad fervor. Sound familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically. To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film." {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ a b Brian Lawatch (2004). "Legitimizing Torture: How Similar Ideologies of the United States in the War on Terror and the French in Algeria Led to Torture". Boise State. Retrieved 2011-09-18. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); line feed character in |title= at position 48 (help)
  9. ^ a b c Robert Matthews (2007-09). "Misguided wars: Comparing the lost French cause in Algeria with the US debacle in Iraq" (PDF). Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior. Retrieved 2012-08-04. It has been said that the war in Algeria offers some thoughts and lessons for the US dilemma in Iraq today. An examination of the two cases, however, reveals more diff erences than similarities between the two conflicts. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ a b Neil Macmaster. "Torture: from Algiers to Abu Ghraib" (PDF). Race & Class. Retrieved 2012-08-05. An examination of this debate shows, in particular, how 'torture advocates' developed their arguments de nouveau, reinventing the wheel as it were, without any reference to the huge field of historical, ethical, philosophical and legal knowledge that exists in relation to the practice of torture. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); line feed character in |quote= at position 130 (help)
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  • William Pfaff (2004-09-26). "'De Gaulle option' may be our best Iraq exit strategy". Seattle Times. Retrieved 2012-08-04. If Kerry is elected president, he will have the de Gaulle option. He will have a window lasting a few months during which he could reverse U.S. policy and expect, provisionally, to carry public opinion with him. He could set a general timetable for coalition troop withdrawals, begin them, terminate the construction now going on of permanent American bases in Iraq and affirm America's intention to respect Iraq's sovereign authority over its national security, its economy, its industry and the disposition of its energy resources. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  • Elaine Sciolino (2003-09-28). "The World: Common Ground in Paris; 'This Is Not as Serious as People Think'". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-08-04. In an interview at the Élysée Palace last Sunday, the French president, Jacques Chirac, said his experience as a young lieutenant who was wounded in Algeria's war of independence had helped shape his thinking on Iraq. In Algeria we began with a sizable army and huge resources, and the fighters for independence were only a handful of people, but they won, he said. That's how it is. So you have to be careful. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  • Alistair Horne (2011). A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962. New York Review Books. ISBN 9781590174814. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  • "Re-release of The Battle of Algiers". CNN. 2004-01-01. Retrieved 2012-08-04. Insurgents fight the troops, on the program today, not in Baghdad but in Algiers, and in the movie theatre. This weekend the 1965 film "The Battle of Algiers" is re-released here in the United States and it's already had a private screening at the Pentagon where filmgoers were lured in by the possibility of learning lessons, if any, from the film for the Iraq experience of these days. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  • Michael T. Kaufman (2003-09-07). "What Does the Pentagon See in 'Battle of Algiers'?". Rialto Pictures. Retrieved 2012-08-04. As the flier inviting guests to the Pentagon screening declared: "How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range. Women plant bombs in cafes. Soon the entire Arab population builds to a mad fervor. Sound familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically. To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film." {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  • Zbigniew Brzezinski (2006-06-14). "President's Baghdad Trip Sparks U.S. Iraq Policy Debate". PBS Newshour. Retrieved 2012-08-04. There's a wonderful movie called "The Battle of Algiers," which shows what happened when the effort was made finally just to control Algiers. I'm afraid the battle for Baghdad is, in many ways, reminiscent of the battle for Algiers. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  • Ritt Goldstein (2004-04-08). "Iraq revolt: Tactics of diversion". Asia Times. Retrieved 2010-10-. Providing commentary on Iraq's reality, Democratic senator Ted Kennedy just charged that Iraq is "Bush's Vietnam". But on October 28, former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brezinski provided what may be a more accurate analogy to another country, where France battled insurgents. Brezinski described a movie "which deals with a reality which is very similar to that we confront today in Baghdad ... The Battle For Algiers". {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  • Alain Gresh (2008-03-07). "Iraq: Did the Surge Work?". Middle East Online. Retrieved 2012-08-04. So was this, as Bush claimed in his State of the Union address, the right decision? The arrival of 30,000 troops led to an undeniable improvement in security in the capital. Walls between Sunni and Shia areas eased sectarian tensions, and the proliferation of control points (there are now 100,000 concrete blocks scattered on roads in and around Baghdad) reduced attacks. But although France won the battle for Algiers in 1957 by mobilising its forces, it lost the war. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

Bibliography

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See also

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Category:Iraq War Category:Algerian War Iraq War