The weakness of the west
Unless we become as single-minded as the fanatics, we are all hostages now By Melanie Phillips. Published in: Daily Mail 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 the...