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

There have been comparisons in public debate comparing the current Iraq War (2003-present) to the Algerian War (1954–1962). 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. 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."

Pentagon screening of The Battle of Algiers

Pentagon officials viewed on August 27, 2003 Gillo Pontecorvo 1966 film, The Battle of Algiers. 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. 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."

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. 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

Scholarly comparisons of the use of torture

Several scholars have compared the use of of torture in the two wars.

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."

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

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.

External links

• 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

• Major Gregory D. Peterson, The French Experience in Algeria, 1954-62: Blueprint for U.S. Operations in Iraq, Ft Leavenworth, Kansas: School of Advanced Military Studies

See also

• Torture during the Algerian War

Category:Iraq War Category:Algerian War Iraq War