Re: Right now, there are groups that are demanding that the US provide food, electricity and water. Other groups feel that the US has a major responsibility to repair much of the Iraqi infrastructure and get the oil fields operational again.
And other "groups" feel that the US has a major responsibility to lean on Israel and get Sharon and his Likud freaks abide by the road map...
Now let's focus on the big picture... So far, I think the best historical model to compare the current Mideast theatre with is the French-Algerian war (1954-1962). Somehow, the US politics towards the Israeli-Palestinian crisis is the mirror image of General De Gaulle's. Using the prism of the Algerian war of independence to analyze the current snafu in the Mideast should allow us to figure out what lies ahead. For that matter, "alternative history" and "what-if studies" are a favorite pastime for many Anglo-Saxon historians.
So, what would have happened in France in 1960-1962 if the French head of state had been a born-again Christian? De Gaulle would have addressed French opinion in his usual grandiloquent rhetoric, ending all his speeches by "God bless France!" The French Chief of Staff would have invited Monseigneur Lefebvre, a Catholic fanatic (*), to celebrate a Mass in Latin for the French military --just like Rev Graham did for the Pentagon...
Eventually, history would have played out completely differently since De Gaulle would have leaned towards the fanatical, fascistic Pieds-Noirs... Hence ALL the terrorism that plagued France between 1954 and 1962 would have been pinned on the FLN and the Arabs. French intelligence, in cahoots with pro-Pied-Noir medias, would have cooked up an Algerian Al-Qaeda and forged an Algerian Bin Laden... OAS? The rebellious generals Salan, Jouhaud, Challe? The exiled conspirators Lagaillarde and Ortiz (in Spain), Soustelle and Massey (in Italy), Sergent (in Belgium)?? What OAS? What generals? What pied-noir conspirators? There's only ONE terrorism!! There're only ARAB/ALGERIAN terrorists! And De Gaulle would have ordered the French airforce to bomb both Tunisia and Morocco --in order to (re-)occupy them (both Morocco and Tunisia harbored FLN leaders and troops).
Fortunately for the French, for France and for Algeria, public opinion was told the truth. By granting Algeria independence, De Gaulle actually killed two birds with one stone: he freed the Algerians AND prevented the racist, fascist plague rampant in Algeria from spreading across the Mediterranean and into metropolitan France. BTW, such an ideological contamination was a key objective for the OAS leadership: Salan and his OAS associates devised a psychological warfare to sway French opinion against De Gaulle and his independentist policy. However, because of the OAS's outrageous bombings and murders, French opinion turned increasingly against the Pieds-Noirs and their dystopian Algérie Française. In the process, De Gaulle managed to subdue the fascist threat and preserve a democratic French republic. And that's what's really disturbing when we compare it with the current US policy: the Bush administration has done exactly the opposite and shamefully pandered to the Judeofascist clique, hence my prediction that fascism and civil war are just around the corner in America.
Gus
(*) catholicreform.org |
