Bouteflika’s Last Hurrah?

American Spectator ^ | February 28, 2019 | Roger Kaplan

[Twotone]

While “yellow-vest” protests continue in France, receiving wide and attention, rolling demos in Algeria are scarcely noticed. Yet as different sectors of society mobilize through social media for turns in the streets of Algiers, the stakes are no less dramatic.

After all, if the French government of Emmanuel Macron falls, so what? The young president’s reform program will be stopped cold. But France remains a force to be reckoned with, regardless.

Algeria is a different matter. A descent into chaos or a prolonged period of instability will have effects, on the continent of Africa and with repercussions in Europe, as significant as did the breakdown of Libya. Terrorist organizations could have a whole vast playground (and oil resources), and refugees and emigrants will pour into Spain and Italy and France, whatever the stated policies of reluctant destination countries. The Mediterranean could become as dangerous as it was in the days of the Barbary pirates.

A French province until 1962, Algeria never quite made a go of its hard-earned independence. Seven and a half years of war to end a 130-year relationship — begun with a conquest worthy of Genghis Khan and marked by recurrent revolts and sordid, heavy handed repressions — and all they got was a stalino-islamist dictatorship. The Jews, a major population group, left, to the benefit of France and Israel.

That, at least, was the verdict of the opposition, made up for the most part of the very men and women who had been most determined to end French rule.

[humblegunner]

Bootyflicka was the worst movie Mickey Rooney ever made.

[MplsSteve]

Algeria has always struck me as an really violence-prone country.

If you look back to their 1956-62 war of independence against France, the Algerians spent as much time killing their own citizens as their did the French Army and pied noirs.

The Algerian Civil War (1991-2002) was epic, not only in the number of dead, but in how many of them died in massacres - many hacked to pieces by radical Islamists. Bombings of public places and assassinations were the norm there. The Algerian Army and security forces were no better, resorting to extra-judicial killings and extensive torture of terror suspects.

Regardless of whether Bouteflika dies or not, I can easily picture Algeria descending back into chaos again - sooner than later.

[upchuck]

Here’s a source for you. Lots of stuff here you can steal for your blog.

[kearnyirish2]

The brutality of the civil war was foreshadowed by atrocities in the independence war; they’d emasculate Frenchmen and stuff it in their mouths.

Savage people, but the French held on because they insisted Algeria was a province, not a colony like Indochina. In any of these cases (Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, etc.) the only way to make it work is to create a “pure” European state on a fraction of the territory - and on a coast. It is how Britain kept Hong Kong (leaving when their lease was up) and Spain still keeps cities on the coast of former Spanish Morocco. If the Europeans can’t do that because they are so dependent on the natives for a non-voting workforce, then it becomes unjustifiable.