Fisk's article is exactly what I tried to express above. I read his book `The great war for civilization' a few years ago. Its compelling albeit tough to read. Another book that provides (much wider) background is `Small Wars, Far Away Places' by Michael Burleigh. It describes the major conflicts 1950-1970 fuelled by the cold war, placed in the context of decolonisation.
Dear Juan, as usual I've been reading your blog with great interest. I think you are making quite a number of questionable points in this article: Egypt, August 2013 - massive crimes perpetrated with the apparent indifference of the West and Middle East: a military coup, a political movement subverted, its supporters butchered, tortured, imprisioned, driven underground. Nothing new here. Of particular interest to me: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/delay-in-cairo-trial-of-halawa-could-deepen-depression-1.2056377,
one case among thousands (doubtless). Do you really want to laud such a criminal gang as Government of Egypt?
The Paris terrorists: you have not analysed their Algerian background. 500,000+ dead in a horrific war of independence/civil way which ended in 1962, evil on an epic scale on both sides, torture that has become a template for the West (and Israel and the `moderate' Arab states), the French state itself almost subverted by a military putsch, 1million French people forced under threat of death back to France, probably a large reason for the existence and strength of le Front National. From my reading of that war, both left and right in France can be blamed, with few exceptions.
The legacy of that war: massive anti-arab sentiment in the so-called land of equality and fraternity. I have personal experience of this because I spent quite a bit of time on exchanges as a teenager, in the 80's, well before Iraq 1,2, Twin Towers, Afghanistan blow-back e.t.c.
I have no knowledge of the background of the suspect brothers, their parents may even have been `Frence collaborators' in Algeria (50,000 of whom were butchered by the victorious FLN after the war), they cannot have direct knowedge of that war. But they come from a subculture of French society that has been spat upon and marginalized by a large minority of main-stream France ever since.
My final thoughts: USA blamed for much of the woes of the Middle East. But really they inherited (as post WW2 victors and reluctant neo-colonial power) British and French problems - Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and of course Indochina. The French weaker than the British, and in my estimation much worse in terms of human rights and hypocrisy.
Fisk's article is exactly what I tried to express above. I read his book `The great war for civilization' a few years ago. Its compelling albeit tough to read. Another book that provides (much wider) background is `Small Wars, Far Away Places' by Michael Burleigh. It describes the major conflicts 1950-1970 fuelled by the cold war, placed in the context of decolonisation.
Dear Juan, as usual I've been reading your blog with great interest. I think you are making quite a number of questionable points in this article: Egypt, August 2013 - massive crimes perpetrated with the apparent indifference of the West and Middle East: a military coup, a political movement subverted, its supporters butchered, tortured, imprisioned, driven underground. Nothing new here. Of particular interest to me: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/delay-in-cairo-trial-of-halawa-could-deepen-depression-1.2056377,
one case among thousands (doubtless). Do you really want to laud such a criminal gang as Government of Egypt?
The Paris terrorists: you have not analysed their Algerian background. 500,000+ dead in a horrific war of independence/civil way which ended in 1962, evil on an epic scale on both sides, torture that has become a template for the West (and Israel and the `moderate' Arab states), the French state itself almost subverted by a military putsch, 1million French people forced under threat of death back to France, probably a large reason for the existence and strength of le Front National. From my reading of that war, both left and right in France can be blamed, with few exceptions.
The legacy of that war: massive anti-arab sentiment in the so-called land of equality and fraternity. I have personal experience of this because I spent quite a bit of time on exchanges as a teenager, in the 80's, well before Iraq 1,2, Twin Towers, Afghanistan blow-back e.t.c.
I have no knowledge of the background of the suspect brothers, their parents may even have been `Frence collaborators' in Algeria (50,000 of whom were butchered by the victorious FLN after the war), they cannot have direct knowedge of that war. But they come from a subculture of French society that has been spat upon and marginalized by a large minority of main-stream France ever since.
My final thoughts: USA blamed for much of the woes of the Middle East. But really they inherited (as post WW2 victors and reluctant neo-colonial power) British and French problems - Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and of course Indochina. The French weaker than the British, and in my estimation much worse in terms of human rights and hypocrisy.