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Torture proved a boomerang weapon that undermined the power using it

Properties2
tagsja-picks, contrarian_or_surprising, singleton, xref, category/contrarian-or-surprising
aliases@horne_savage_1977, loc. 1659

4 min read

Torture proved a boomerang weapon that undermined the power using it

Evidence

For the rest of the modern world (and not least Southern Africa), the French experience in the Algerian War — a prototype of its kind — continued to offer its compelling lessons, most of them painful, for anyone prepared to heed them. There was the failure of a materially mighty Western power to combat a civil insurrection equipped with little more than ideology, without resort to the means one condemns in one’s enemy; in Algeria, the instrument of torture, as well as being fundamentally wicked in itself, was proved to be a boomerang weapon. There was the failure of the West to comprehend Third World aspirations; and the failure of the moderates everywhere to prevail against the extremist minority on either side; the Gironde is sent packing by the Montagne. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1659 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Because of the slowness of communications in the 1950s and 1960s, it took a year or more for the message of abuses perpetrated in Algeria to sink in. Now, with the Internet and al-Jazeera, one set of photos from Abu Ghraib is enough to inflame hatred across the Islamic world against the West, providing excuse for all the beheadings and atrocities carried out by al-Qaeda. From the Inquisition to the Gestapo and the “Battle of Algiers,” history teaches us that, in the production of reliable intelligence, regardless of the moral issue, torture is counter-productive. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 52 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

  • XREF: connects to: Torture was the chief factor in France’s defeat.; Torture backfired as a boomerang weapon in the Algerian war. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1659; Torture is counterproductive even for intelligence gathering — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 52 (+8 more)

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