In 2003 the WaPo’s David Ignatius, while lauding Rumsfeld’s strategies, reported:
The Pentagon’s special operations chiefs have scheduled a showing tomorrow in the Army auditorium of “The Battle of Algiers,” a classic film that examines how the French, despite overwhelming military superiority, were defeated by Algerian resistance fighters.
The Pentagon and their brethren at the CIA picked selectively the wrong ideas from that movie and didn’t get its general message.
A clip from the movie explains:
Jane Mayer writes (recommendable) on the confidential International Committee of the Red Cross report on the CIA’s black prisoner program:
Congressional and other Washington sources familiar with the report said that it harshly criticized the C.I.A.’s practices. One of the sources said that the Red Cross described the agency’s detention and interrogation methods as tantamount to torture, and declared that American officials responsible for the abusive treatment could have committed serious crimes. The source said the report warned that these officials may have committed “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions, and may have violated the U.S. Torture Act, which Congress passed in 1994.
When those people responsible for this defend their doing, they use the same argumential line the press briefing French officer is using in the movie:
“We are soldiers. Our duty is to win. Therefore, to be precise, it’s my turn to ask a question: Should France stay in Algeria? If you are answer is still yes, then you must accept all the consequences.”
It is the same argument Bush used to get his kill-FISA law passed: “Should the U.S. fight against terror? If your answer is still yes, then you must accept all the consequences.”
The logic in that is of course all wrong. But that didn’t matter to the French press then and it doesn’t matter to the people who voted for Bush’s law, or really want to stay in Iraq. They embrace it and reuse the same question to justify their personal lack of backbone and moral.
Watch the short clip from Battle of Algiers showing the press conference, and the consequences.