Algerian Independence

The French government employed torture in order to subdue rebellion and combat terrorism during the Algerian War for Independence. Its brutal interrogation of FLN prisoners gave them access to invaluable information which led to their victory in the Battle of Algiers. Given the circumstances, their use of torture was certainly justifiable, but it also ultimately became France’s undoing in the war, which the Algerian nationalists won in 1962.

Algeria was an extremely important colony to France: lots of money went into establishing it, and it supplied France with a worthwhile amount of resources and commerce. So, it’s no wonder that France wanted to remain in control of it when nationalists were calling for independence from France. The French government’s methods turned to torture when le Front de Libération Nationale (the National Liberation Front) started practicing terrorism. The FLN’s willingness to attack innocent pieds-noirs in order to further their cause prompted an extreme response on the part of France. There was no way to successfully resist FLN terrorist forces besides utilizing torture against them, and since France was so intent on clinging to Algeria, there was no other foreseeable remedy to the situation – at least, that’s how it seemed to the French.

France’s torture campaign allowed the French army to acquire information which led to the capture or death of all the major FLN leaders in the Battle of Algiers. But was it effective in the long run? The fear of torture that was instilled in the terrorists may have been significant, but it paled in comparison to the ferocity in opposition it caused. So appalled were the FLN (despite the atrocities that they, themselves had committed) that they obtained newfound resilience, as well as support from many who had previously been undecided on the matter of Algerian independence. France’s use of torture had simply caused the war to escalate terribly – Algerian nationalists found that terrorism seemed more and more necessary, and the French found that torture seemed more and more necessary. Torture not only didn’t end up giving them enough of an upper hand to win the war, but it contributed to the bad blood between the Algerians and the French, it lost them popular support of the war among the French public and it “stained the honor of the French nation.”

In its current global war against terrorism, the United States has a lot to learn from the French situation in Algeria. Torture may seem like an effective way to counter terrorists for the short-term, but in the long-run it does more bad than good. If the U.S. uses torture to strike terrorism, terrorism will just bite back, twice as hard. But the situation isn’t quite analogous. If France had been more interested in saving lives than in keeping control over Algeria, independence would have been granted far sooner. Obviously, what most terrorists today want is not something that it would be feasible for the U.S. to grant. If torture won’t work, and the U.S. can’t give in to the terrorists’ wishes, what is there to be done? The U.S. needs to refine its interrogation techniques to ensure that the information it’s getting is more reliable (torture can lead to incredible heaps of misinformation) and less morally questionable. What it needs to do is not fuel the fire in the hearts of people who would sympathize with the terrorists. What it needs to do is not to escalate tensions resulting in even greater devastation and opposition. It must not fight atrocity with atrocity – it simply cannot lead to a positive outcome.