The hostage situation in Algeria has gotten resolved. Ugly.

Links here and here; the usual conflicting reports of just how many terrorists and hostages died, and that won’t get determined until later in the day – but the Algerians apparently did assault the facility where the hostages were being held, and hostages apparently did die.  I suspect that this was a case of a series of bad decisions cascading into a catastrophe, and not the “God will know his own” policy favored by, say, Russian counter-terrorism agencies… but we’ll know more as we go along.

Via here and here.

Moe Lane

PS: Notice the explicit lack of This is not a time for partisan politics in the text above; mostly because I don’t actually know whether it is a time for partisan politics or not.  If it turns out that the Obama administration is essentially blameless in this matter, fine: if they contributed to it somehow, nail ’em to the wall.  This White House has already gotten enough innocent US citizens killed, and Barack Obama’s first term isn’t even over yet…

5 thoughts on “The hostage situation in Algeria has gotten resolved. Ugly.”

  1. This is what happens when we have a foreign policy of really not caring about terrorism. Mali and Algeria are going to turn into another Vietnam and Cambodia, mark my words.

    1. I dunno. I don’t think we have an analogue for Mao Zedong in China closer than Obama, so I suspect the situations will not be that closely cognate, whatever the hopes and dreams of the left are.
      .
      Check out Chung and Halliday’s Mao the Unknown Story for more information on what I’m talking about, if you can handle the nightmares.

  2. I think I have to disagree with your implied premise, here, Moe. You can’t take off the table actions which might possibly harm the hostages, because if you do so, the terrorists win. Terrorists need to learn, “Screw with the US, die painfully in fire”. And this may cost some hostage lives up front, but it will save many times more down the road.

    The inability to do this calculation is one of the reasons having a Democrat in the White House is so damaging to foreign policy.

  4. If the US had clearly exhibited decisive and competent leadership lately, I would expect that the US had a voice in something happening this fast. If the Algerians did this on their own, it may be a sign of good decision making on their part. Couple weeks early to for me to have a clue what went on.
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    Caedete Eos…

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