Algeria: The Iceberg That Could Sink Emmanuel Macron

American Conservative ^ | March 8, 2019 | Scott McConnell

[C19fan]

After surviving several assassination attempts by French partisans of Algérie Française, Charles de Gaulle in March 1962 signed a peace agreement ending French sovereignty over Algeria. The war for Algerian independence had been long and vicious, marked by terrorism and torture. Everyone who mattered in French politics believed in 1954 that Algeria was an integral part of France, to be defended at all cost. But by 1962, their view had changed. With cold realism, de Gaulle remarked of the conflict, now in its seventh year, “As for France, it will be necessary for her now to interest herself in something else.”

France did fine after granting independence to Algeria. Algeria less so. The Algerians who had taken the side of France, fought in its army, or served as administrators of the Algerian government fared terribly—many suffered appalling deaths at the hands of the vengeful victors. According to Alistair Horne’s Savage War of Peace, 15,000 were killed in the summer after the March armistice.

[C19fan]

The former colonial people getting revenge on their former masters by colonizing the metropole.

[VanDeKoik]

“Everyone who mattered in French politics believed in 1954 that Algeria was an integral part of France, to be defended at all cost.”

As much as I’ve read on it, I still have no idea how these people ever thought that seriously. Maybe a few coastal cities, but ALL of Algeria? Please...

[hanamizu]

Same thing is happening/has happened to the United Kingdom. Empire coming home to roost.

[karnage]

Imperialist colonial mindsets may seem foreign today, but they are part of the history of every great power.

“Manifest Destiny,” anyone?

[PGR88]

there was no real difference between the Muslim headscarf and a headband worn by Catholic schoolgirls,

Catholic headbands? WTF you talkin' about willis?

[Verginius Rufus]

Albert Camus was a Frenchman from Algeria. His novel The Stranger is set there.

I learned from reading The Stranger never to drink cafe au lait at a wake.

[RightGeek]

Here's the punchline:

If Algeria were to collapse into chaos, France would be destabilized as well. The civil war resulted in a huge migration surge; this time it would be larger. Among the migrants would be a large number of Islamists, and illegal immigration would mean the French couldn’t control everyone who would come. And France, at least some quarters, is already an Islamic Republic in embryo.

The fall of Gadafi in Libya was bad enough.