President Sarkozy at Roman ruins of Tipasa (Photo Source: AFP/Le Monde)
It's hard to keep up with "Speedy Sarkozy" (as Le Monde has taken to calling him), or my own appellation controlee "The Energizer Bunny." I was simply going to refer in this post to Sarkozy's speech on his return from Algiers, but I have to specify: his speech to French and Algerian French veterans on the injustices done over the 45 years since Algerian independence. Not his speech - very timely, touching, and targeted - to the FARC leader Manuel Marulanda proposing a humanitarian liberation of French/Colombian hostage politician Ingrid Betancourt.
President Sarkozy's visit to Algeria - the first French President to do so who does not have historical baggage through military or governmental service in support of colonialism - was, as the Algiers daily "Liberte" said today, "under the sign of business." As usual, veteran Algerian political cartoonist Dilem (also of "Liberte") got it right in today's sketch ("After Sarkozy's speech on colonialism, Algerians were relieved; 5 billion euros!"): 
There's nothing terribly wrong about a state visit that is a glorified business junket. In fact, given the sensitivities between former colonizer and colonized, it might be more productive to stay away as much as possible from History. Sarkozy did, however, make a speech in Algiers where he condemned the excesses of French colonialism as practiced in Algeria from 1830 to 1962, but he shied away from the A-word, and did not issue anything like an "apology" that could give comfort to those looking for a clear mea culpa.
But in my book, Sarkozy's most significant Algeria speech was delivered immediately after his return to France. Last night he welcomed to the Elysee Palace the associations representing the combat veterans of the War in Algeria and the repatriated harkis (those who weren't repatriated in 1962 were horribly annihilated by their Algerian compatriots) and their descendants. The harkis (Algerians who joined the doomed effort to keep Algeria French) are the real losers in the whole sad story of, as Alistair Horne called it, the "Savage War of Peace" that was Algeria's fight for independence from 1954 to 1962. Those who survived the vengeful mobs made it to France, only to be shunted off to isolated camps, sometimes for decades. Their families, born in France like the millions of other "beurs," were looked upon with scorn as the offspring of traitors.
For a thought-provoking look at how wrenching the harkis' choice of loyalties must have been, look no further than the little-known French-Belgian 2005 film "The Betrayal" ("La Trahison"). This is from Variety's review:
The army destroys a village suspected of collaborating with the FLN and moves the residents to a refugee camp. Torture of Algerian suspects is an everyday occurrence at headquarters. A notebook falls into the army's hands that seems to prove Taieb and the other Arab soldiers in Roque's unit are double agents, planning to slaughter their fellow soldiers. It could be an FLN trick to sow suspicion and undermine morale -- or it could be the real deal. If Roque arrests innocent men, he will proving the French Army is racist; but if they really are traitors and he doesn't act in time, blood will be shed. A less ambitious film might have stuck to watching events unfold from Roque's point of view alone, but here plenty of scenes show the Algerian soldiers talking among themselves, their dialogue in Arabic never quite proving or disproving the accusations against them. The picture cleverly plays with language to draw out suspense, not just to create mystery for its own sake but to allow the full complexity of the issues to sink in. The performers deftly sustain the air of ambiguity, and there's a soft-spoken intelligence. Even the battle scenes are quiet...
In Algeria, there is still little or no sympathy for the Algerians (some of whom, like those portrayed in "The Betrayal," were drafted into the French Army) who fought with the French. Finally, in his speech last night, Sarkozy recognized the "debt" owed to those who joined the French cause, and the justification for "reparations" to make up for the shabby treatment they have received. As Sarkozy said, "Pour la France, il s'agit aujourd'hui d'une question d'honneur" (no translation required).
Here's my question: when will an American director make a film about the Iraqis who joined the Coalition Forces as interpreters, drivers, or civil affairs advisors? Or those Iraqis who are so identified to the American occupation that whatever regime follows the inevitable American withdrawal will treat them as traitors? And what American president will have the guts to speak of "honor" when it comes to taking care of those who - for the second time since the Shiites suicidally heeded George H.W. Bush's call to rise up against Saddam in the aftermath of the liberation of Kuwait - joined this particular American Crusade?