Savage War of Peace

For John, BLUF:  If we want to lead the world in the values area we need to dial back the EIT and Black Sites.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From the web magazine War on the Rocks we have a piece on the issue of Torture, or Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.  The headline is "Torture in a Savage War of Peace:  Revisiting the Battle of Algiers".  Back when I was young, in the 1950s, I must have been a bit of a Franco-phile.  I followed the Battle for Dien-Bien Phu on the radio.  I knew that French Prime Minister Pierre Mendès France had tried to introduce milk as a suitable drink in France.  I followed the return of Charles de Gaulle to lead the French People.  And, around 1959, on the recommendation of my Father, I read The Question.

In their article, War on the Rocks provides a reprint of an extract from Historian Alistair Horne's book on the French fight to retain Algeria as part of Metropolitan France, A Savage War of Peace.

Torture, or Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, are wrong.  The Bush Administration should not have gone down that rabbit hole.  On the other hand, I can understand how there was movement in that direction.  Who knew what was going to happen next?  The unfolding of events on 9/11 just seemed to go on and on and we had no idea what would happen on 9/12.

I am not one of those calling of prosecutions, but I am one of those calling for us to repudiate those techniques and to return to our previous legal standards.  I think former Vice President Chaney is wrong in this area.

I commend to you the article from War on the Rocks.  Here again is the link.

Regards  —  Cliff