Algeria Demands Apology; France Hides The Receipt Book
While The New Arab reports Algeria pushing a bill for France to recognize its colonial 'legal responsibility,' (Source: The New Arab), the broader Western narrative often whitewashes the brutal specifics. France's 'mission civilisatrice' in Algeria wasn't just 'tragic' – it involved massacres like Sétif in 1945, where French forces killed thousands of Algerians demanding independence, and
continued systematic torture during the Algerian War (Source: Al Jazeera, 2021). This isn't ancient history; many survivors are still alive, carrying the scars of a war France officially acknowledged as a 'war' only in 1999. One might wonder if France's refusal to fully reckon with its past echoes the global resistance to acknowledge ongoing atrocities, particularly when powerful allies are
involved. The demand for accountability for historical injustice becomes 'complex' only when inconvenient for the powerful. Perhaps if Algeria had strategically invested in Washington lobbyists, their 'tragedies' would be taken with the gravity of, say, Russian aggression, instead of being treated as yesterday's news.