Obama, UK & In Amenas,,,,,,,,,,,,,

The Torygraph got it right.

 

 

O's message for the UK to remain in the EU was "breathtaking arrogance". Whatever possessed O to involve himself in Britain's internal affairs is beyond my comprehension unless he so dislikes the UK that he wants it to squander national resources by remaining a member. On the other hand, O may just be pandering to the Europeans who somehow adore him.

 

Some analysts believe O's disdain for the UK stems from his Kenyan father's experience under colonial rule. If this is the case, then O should be even more disdainful of France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Germany not to mention our own colonial endeavors.

 

Now that Algeria's ham fisted efforts at the In Amenas gas facility resulted in American deaths, and now that France has upheld Algeria's actions in this matter, O will have to be careful how he characterizes Algeria's interventions. He cannot mimic France without an uproar from Americans who are appalled at the killing of hostages by both terrorists and the Algerian army.

 

The world press, including al Jazeera, has focused almost entirely on foreign hostage treatment with nary a word about the status of the terrorists involved. In fairness, Algeria has been less than forthright in its reporting of the incident and the numbers and nationalities of people involved.

 

 

Interestingly, those who are involved extend beyond the list of usual suspects. Suddenly, Norway and Japan are intimately confronted with terrorism in the Middle East given the loss of their workers at the facility.

 

 

Clearly, the terrorists are not discriminating and what was once a vendetta against the Western superpowers and so called American imperialism suddenly has a new international face. Quite possibly, the terrorists could not differentiate between the foreigners. Reportedly, they were only interested in mistreating the non-Muslims.

 

The In Amenas incident heightens the prospect of greater entente between France and Algeria. Hollande's outspoken support of the Algerian intervention must have been music to ears of President Bouteflika and his minions in the military. After all, they vowed to concede nothing to the terrorists; a domestically popular concession when their own people were being freed leaving only foreign hostages.

 

 

Moreover, In Amenas is a strategic installation producing some 10% of Algeria's natural gas. That is enough to make the difference between profit and loss in gas sales abroad.

 

Algeria is seriously xenophobic and could not possibly have accepted the invitation of an SAS type of operation from the UK, France or the US. It is likely, however, that any of these forces would have done a better job given their  training, experience and reputation for excellence in their work.

 

 

So doing, would also have taken the burden off of Algeria for bulldozing itself into the terrorist strongholds and killing everyone in sight.

 

 

On the other hand, it would be unfair to simply condemn Algeria for what it achieved. After all, they are committed to uprooting the jihadist and al Qaida militants who not only threaten Mali, but have been a serious threat to Algeria as well.