Algerian War

Son

You know that I hate wars. It's a spectacular waste of intelligence and human resources. The uk has invaded more than 180 countries and what do we have to show for it? Mouldering graves in all those countries of young men and their families? 

Wars have very long memories son. They don't end when the peace treaty is signed. And have seriously bad repercussions for decades and centuries afterwards. Think about Thermopylae. It still excites emotions. How about the battles of panipat? Or of Vienna? Or the Golden Horde and Moscow? Or or or. 

This is another example of how imperialism has cast a very long shadow over so many people and generations. France has suffered hugely because of its imperialism, the fourth republic fell because of this, civil wars happened. 

Tocqueville praised how Algeria was taken over. This man praised the quality of American democracy and wasn't able to look at Algeria in the Same way. We got you his book for your 18th birthday son. Read it. 

Then the fight between Algeria and Egypt. It boils over every now and then, over football recently. But look at the history, Egypt helped Algeria regain it's independence and paid for it by having France invade it. Again! Poor Egypt keeps getting its teeth kicked in. 

But Algeria is still suffering from what the French did. 

And the Berber Arab fight in the Maghreb goes back to what the Muslims did when they expanded their empire. So on and so forth. Wars are crap. Hate them. They ruin lives societies not only when they are raging but for generations afterwards. We allowed the irAq war to happen son but you will keep on suffering the repercussions of that idiotic war for decades. 

Read and weep for a tragic violent pathetic horrible war where hardly anybody came out smelling like roses. 

Love

Baba

Algerian War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_War

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The Algerian War, also known as theAlgerian War of Independence or theAlgerian Revolution(Arabic: الثورة الجزائرية‎Ath-Thawra Al-Jazā’iriyya; French:Guerre d'Algérie, "Algerian War") was a war betweenFrance and theAlgerianindependence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France. An importantdecolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare,maquis fighting, terrorism, the use of torture by both sides, and counter-terrorism operations. The conflict was also a civil war between loyalist Algerians believing in a French Algeria and their insurrectionist Algerian Muslimcounterparts.^[5] Effectively started by members of the National Liberation Front(FLN) on November 1, 1954, during the Toussaint Rouge ("Red All Saints' Day"), the conflict shook the foundations of the French Fourth Republic (1946–58) and led to its eventual collapse. In 1961, president Charles de Gaulledecided to give up Algeria—which was up to then regarded as an integral part of France—after conducting a referendum showing huge support for Algerian independence. The planned withdrawal led to a state crisis, to variousassassination attempts on de Gaulle, and some attempts of military coups. Most of the former were carried out by the Organisation de l'armée secrète(OAS), an underground organization formed mainly from French military personnel supporting a French Algeria, which committed a large number of bombings and murders in both Algeria and the homeland to stop the planned independence.