Mastermind: Militant militia leader Moktar Belmoktar was behind the hostage crisis in which three Britons lost their lives
The immediate response to the Sahara
atrocity must be revulsion, and deep sorrow for the families of those
British and other hostages who were murdered in cold blood or killed in
the rescue attempt.
Condemnation
of the Algerian authorities for the loss of those hostages’ lives, in
what has been termed a ‘bungled’ operation against the Islamist
terrorists who stormed the Algerian gas complex, is nevertheless
inappropriate.
The Prime
Minister yesterday struck a more supportive note than his earlier
reported fury that the Algerians had gone in with all guns blazing
without even informing the UK government.
A measure of common sense thus seems belatedly to have broken through the panic in Whitehall.
For
it is not just that the Algerians’ response in that hideously complex
situation cannot be judged without understanding precisely what they
thought the hostage-takers were about to do. It is also that the
ruthless Algerian approach acknowledges a reality on the ground that the
West seems incapable of grasping.
Weakness
The Algerians refuse to negotiate because they know that the Islamists’ position is simply non-negotiable.
Weakness
The Algerians refuse to negotiate because they know that the Islamists’ position is simply non-negotiable.
Unlike
other hostage-takers, they usually have no interest in getting out
alive; they intend to die as ‘martyrs’, and of course have no
compunction about killing their captives. Moreover, the purpose of
taking hostages is either to kill ‘infidels’, or to extract ransom money
for them — which will merely finance more kidnappings and terrorist
atrocities.
Such
terrorists thus regard with contempt all negotiation as a sign of
weakness. And in the world of Islamic fundamentalism, weakness is an
incentive to further violence.
The Prime Minister yesterday struck a more
supportive note than his earlier reported fury that the Algerians had
gone in with all guns blazing without even informing the UK government
A view of the weapons seized by the Algerian
authorities at the gas plant. The pile, which included handcuffs and
bullets, were shown to journalists in the town of In Amenas
Cowardly: It is thought that many of the hostages died as the terrorists tried to use them as human shields
Only a display of
uncompromising strength — including, most importantly, strength of
resolve — has any chance of being a deterrent. The Algerians understand
this very well. The West does not — instead assuming that everyone on
the planet thinks like it does and is thus similarly governed by
self-interest.
But in
dealing with Islamist fanatics who regard themselves as the army of God,
and for whom death is the highest calling, this is a catastrophic
mistake.
The most
devastating consequence has been the West’s refusal to acknowledge that
it is not fighting a series of brush fires based on local political
grievances, but a war of religion being conducted against the free world
in order to destroy it.
Uncertainty: PM David Cameron earlier warned that the nation should prepare for bad news surrounding the Algerian hostage crisis
French soldiers leave Mali's capital Bamako: The
gas plant terrorists claimed they launched the assault in revenge for
France's attacks on al-Qaeda rebels in the west African country
Hostages taken at the oil plant: Islamist
fanatics play the longest game in town. With their heads still stuck
fast in the seventh century, they think nothing of fighting at least
until the end of the 21st
This fundamental misjudgment
has meant not merely that Western governments failed to grasp the threat
that would be posed by the dispersed Al-Qaeda franchise in the Sahel
region of west and north-central Africa. It has also caused them to make
a series of dreadful errors which have led Islamic extremists to
conclude that victory is within their grasp.
Failing
to deal firmly with terrorist regimes such as Syria, Iran or North
Korea, which pose a mortal threat to peace and freedom, Western
governments instead helped remove admitted tyrants in the Muslim world
who were nevertheless allies (however fragile) of the West.
Blundering
about with their asinine belief that elections are the antidote to holy
war, they have merely produced chaos in which Islamic fanatics and
terrorists have been the main beneficiaries.
In action: A member of the Algerian special
forces, also known as the kouksoul, who were criticized for going in
'all guns blazing' but understand the terrorist more than the West
Terror: British workers were among more than 100
foreigners held hostage at the BP-operated Amenas natural gas field
field in Algeria
In a bitter irony, advanced
Libyan weaponry that fell into terrorist hands after Colonel Gaddafi was
ousted — courtesy of the UK, France and the U.S. — has been used
against the French in Mali.
In
Egypt, where the U.S. and UK helped lever out President Mubarak, his
replacement, Mohamed Morsi, is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood which
increasingly appears committed to holy war against the West.
In
similar vein, Western governments have soft-pedalled Iran through
fruitless negotiations and slow-burning sanctions, thus giving it time
to build its nuclear bomb with which it hopes to finish off the West.
Fighting
Worse still, those governments have themselves shown a lack of stomach for a fight. This has been demonstrated by the ignominious way they scuttled from Iraq, and fought a war in Afghanistan which — despite the unquestioned courage of the soldiers fighting it — often appeared so half-hearted it all but guaranteed what historians will surely regard as defeat.
Fighting
Worse still, those governments have themselves shown a lack of stomach for a fight. This has been demonstrated by the ignominious way they scuttled from Iraq, and fought a war in Afghanistan which — despite the unquestioned courage of the soldiers fighting it — often appeared so half-hearted it all but guaranteed what historians will surely regard as defeat.
By contrast,
Islamist fanatics play the longest game in town. With their heads still
stuck fast in the seventh century, they think nothing of fighting at
least until the end of the 21st.
What
inspires them to further violence is their perception that the West is
wide open for the taking — because it simply doesn’t have the will to
fight for what it believes in.
Terror: Hostages are seen with their hands in the air at the In Amenas gas facility
In Egypt the U.S. and UK helped lever out
President Mubarak, only to find his replacement, Mohamed Morsi
(pictured), is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood which increasingly
appears committed to holy war against the West
FILE - In this Friday, July 13, 2012 file photo,
(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
This is demonstrated not just
in the military sphere, but in the way in which it has allowed the
radical Islamist agenda to make inroads into its own societies, courtesy
of the perversities of human rights culture and the craven willingness
to silence all such concerns on the grounds that they are ‘Islamophobic’
This lack of will is on show in the
U.S. no less than in Britain. Indeed, one of the most devastating blows
to the defence of the West is that President Obama, having helped the
Muslim Brotherhood to power in the Middle East, has in effect pulled up
the drawbridge by declaring that his interests now lie across the
Pacific instead.
America
may be committing a few drones to the fight in Mali or the badlands on
the border of Pakistan. But with its strategic shift and planned defence
reductions, the Obama administration is signalling that the U.S. is no
longer willing to lead the defence of the West against its most deadly
enemy. And that should terrify us, because without America we are lost.
Confusion
The belief that Britain should similarly sit on the sidelines in glorious isolationism is misguided. The jihadists in Africa directly threaten us, not least through the two-way traffic between UK-based Somalis, Sudanese, Algerians and so on and Al-Qaeda in the Sahara.
Confusion
The belief that Britain should similarly sit on the sidelines in glorious isolationism is misguided. The jihadists in Africa directly threaten us, not least through the two-way traffic between UK-based Somalis, Sudanese, Algerians and so on and Al-Qaeda in the Sahara.
While
we must certainly be discriminating in our use of military force
abroad, we have to alter the deadly perception of confusion and
weakness which will encourage further atrocities.
The
modest help the UK gave the French in Mali was proportionate, but Mr
Cameron is right to suggest we may provide more to fight Al-Qaeda in
Africa. It will finally be defeated there only through a concerted
effort of international will and commitment to the long haul.
But
that’s not all. There is a seamless connection between jihadi movements
abroad, the blind eyes turned to polygamy or the oppression of Muslim
women in the UK, and debacles such as the failure to extradite Abu
Qatada.
To win this
great civilisational battle of our time and protect all our citizens
—including Britain’s many moderate Muslims — Britain must abandon its
current incoherence. That means holding the line against Sharia law in
Britain, and tearing up human rights law in order to deal properly with
the human wrongs of Islamic terrorists.
It
means treating the Muslim Brotherhood as a deadly threat to freedom
everywhere, rather than embracing them within Whitehall as helpful to
the West.
It means a steely
resolve to act against the whole continuum of extremism that links
British boys in Tower Hamlets or Sheffield to Al-Qaeda in the Sahara.
And it means no soft-pedalling or negotiation with those threatening
violence against us or our interests abroad.
Only
if we display such moral clarity and unwavering resolve will this
menace ever be defeated, both at home and abroad. Otherwise, we are all
hostages now.
m.phillips@dailymail.co.uk
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