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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Mariano Navarro</title>
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		<title>Algeria: A Case Study of Decolonization</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/mariano-navarro/algeria-a-case-study-of-decolonization/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=algeria-a-case-study-of-decolonization</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/mariano-navarro/algeria-a-case-study-of-decolonization/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Jul 2012 04:05:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mariano Navarro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[algeria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[colonialism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[France]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poverty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[violence]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=137141</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Challenging the narrative that colonialism was really as “evil” as it is popularly portrayed.  ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/021211_algeria1.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-137144" title="021211_algeria" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/021211_algeria1.gif" alt="" width="375" height="245" /></a>No matter how delicately one tries to speak about 20<sup>th</sup> century European colonialism, saying anything positive of former colonial powers is usually seen as elitist and Eurocentric, at best, militaristic and racist, at worst. This is especially true of a complicated place like Algeria.</p>
<p>This past week, the international community memorialized the fifty-year anniversary of Algeria’s independence, granted by French President Charles De Gaulle on July 3, 1962, after a bloody eight-year war against pro-independence revolutionaries.</p>
<p>But what exactly is being commemorated? Algeria today is an absolute mess. My research work, which has taken me to the country several times in recent years, indicates that it is a highly fractured and unstable society. There is also a constant Islamist threat. Putting it bluntly, I have found the country chaotic, filthy and tension-filled. It should be an embarrassment to the country’s leaders — and to the international development experts who have advised it for decades. </p>
<p>Algeria’s revolutionary violence during the 1950s seems to have achieved little more than leaving an estimated 700,000 dead, and thousands more scarred physically and psychologically. Driven by an ideology of Communism and early Islamism, groups like the <a href="http://www.marxists.org/history/algeria/1954/proclamation.htm">National Liberation Front</a> mercilessly used guerrilla tactics, torture and terrorism against their own people. French paratroopers responded ruthlessly with their own counter-insurgency tactics — and, for a while, they succeeded. (Gillo Pontecorvo’s excellent 1966 film, “<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2000/jul/20/artsfeatures">The Battle of Algiers</a>,” depicts some of the battles and the tactics used by both sides.) </p>
<p>I won’t tax readers with a detailed account of that horrific war; there are numerous excellent published accounts (such as Alistair Horne’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Savage-War-Peace-1954-1962-Classics/dp/1590172183/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1341558454&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=algeria"><em>A Savage War of Peace</em></a>). But it is worth noting that even after independence was granted, attacks on Algerian civilians —including Berber peoples — at the hands of various factions of insurgents continued for decades. The terrifying civil war of the 1990s between various Islamist rebel groups and the government left another 200,000 dead. The poor, doomed Cistercian monks of Tibhirine — seven of them decapitated by an Islamist group in 1996 — were the most famous victims of that awful decade. (This is beautifully memorialized in the poignant 2010 film, “<a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/movies/25gods.html">Of Gods and Men</a>.”) </p>
<p>In short, decolonization and independence from France did not result in dignified self-rule, peaceful development or political order as promised by the pro-independence ideologues of the 1950s. If anything, the departure of French authorities and the exodus of French families — the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied-Noir"><em>pieds-noirs</em></a> (that is, Algerians descended from Europeans) as well as Catholics, Jews and loyalist Muslim intellectuals — left the country insecure and culturally impoverished. Algeria’s so-called “war of independence” effectively removed the one group that could maintain political order, promote development and ensure peace in Algeria: the French. </p>
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		<title>The Battle That Saved the Christian West</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/mariano-navarro/the-battle-that-saved-the-christian-west/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-battle-that-saved-the-christian-west</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:19:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mariano Navarro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afternoon Edition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=108396</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[440 years later.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/55854f50-da27-4df0-a58d-fdcb054252a9.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-108400" title="55854f50-da27-4df0-a58d-fdcb054252a9" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/55854f50-da27-4df0-a58d-fdcb054252a9.gif" alt="" width="375" height="252" /></a></p>
<p>What some call “the battle that saved the Christian West” took place 440 years ago October 7<sup>th</sup>. It is a historical event of such importance — and of such relevance to the struggles of today — that I would be remiss not to mention it. Sadly, a cursory look on-line indicates that few people — save military historians, some traditionalist Catholics and a few <em>rarae aves</em> — seem to know much about it.</p>
<p>At about 11:00 a.m. October 7th in 1571, 300 Ottoman ships from Turkey clashed with a scraggly alliance of European naval armies in the tranquil waters between the Albanian coast and the Peloponnesus. Under the command of the 25-year-old Don Juan of Austria, the illegitimate son of Charles V and half-brother of Philip II of Spain, some 212 Christian ships from Genoa, Venice and Spain — as well from the Papal States and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta — had formed the &#8220;Holy League&#8221; to stop the advance of the Ottoman Armada.</p>
<p>After it was over five hours later, 35,000 Moslem Turks were dead and about 15,000 Christian slaves had been freed from the bowels of their stinking galleons. Vastly outnumbered, the forces of Christendom had only lost 7,000 men.</p>
<p>The importance of this battle should not be overlooked. For years, fierce Ottoman forces had been raiding and terrorizing Christian communities around the Mediterranean, taking young men and women as slaves, and slaughtering those they had no use for. Under the red crescent of Allah’s armies, the Turks had terrorized the eastern outposts of European civilization. What happened that day in the Gulf of Lepanto (today known as the Gulf of Corinth) was nothing less than the defense of Europe against a 16<sup>th</sup> century Islamic jihad.</p>
<p>The parallels to today are obvious. The West — perhaps no longer publicly Christian but still built on the foundations and institutions that grew out of Christendom — now faces a similar threat. But, like before, when the rulers of England and France had refused to join the Holy League, many European powers today still refuse to take steps to protect their way of life. And, like before, some European states are even complicit in encouraging and financing Islamic states.</p>
<p>Lepanto’s importance arises not out of the simplistic “clash of civilizations” argument. Rather, the battle — and the atrocities and massacres carried out by the Ottomans, in the years preceding the battle — are solemn reminders that Islamic jihad does not respond to compromise or diplomatic efforts. Nor will it stop until the whole world is subjugated under the name of Allah.</p>
<p>On the 440<sup>th</sup> anniversary of such an important event in the history of the West, we should remember that the same forces that threatened us then, threaten us now. Unfortunately, today they not only exist as external threats, but are internal as well.</p>
<p>That is why the Battle of Lepanto may be worth remembering every year, especially in this time of modern Islamic terrorism. It is not an ancient and irrelevant skirmish between long-forgotten armies, but a decisive event that saved European Christendom — and, thus, the West — from alien forces bent on its destruction.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>What Happened to Vermont?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/mariano-navarro/what-happened-to-vermont/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=what-happened-to-vermont</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/mariano-navarro/what-happened-to-vermont/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Mar 2011 04:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mariano Navarro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afternoon Edition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=86958</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Is the far-left state a window into America's future? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Bernie-Sanders.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-86960" title="Bernie-Sanders" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Bernie-Sanders.gif" alt="" width="375" height="283" /></a></p>
<p>Two hundred and twenty years ago last Friday [March 4], the U.S. Congress ratified Vermont’s petition to become the fourteenth state in the American union. Becoming part of the young republic was an auspicious beginning for the small state as it joined others in history’s greatest experiment in self-rule and human freedom.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the Green Mountain State—and, some might argue, the rest of the United States—long ago forsook these principles. In fact, for many people, one of the greatest historical mysteries is how a rural, agrarian-based and solidly Republican New England state became so radically left-wing.</p>
<p>Why have liberal-Left politicians—like Congressman<strong> </strong><a href="http://welch.house.gov/"><strong>Peter Welch</strong></a> (D), and Senators <a href="http://leahy.senate.gov/"><strong>Patrick Leahy</strong></a> (D) and <a href="http://sanders.senate.gov/"><strong>Bernie Sanders</strong></a> (I)—been so successful in a state that for more than a hundred years was characterized by fierce independence, rugged individualism and a home-grown style of Republicanism?</p>
<p>The answer isn’t as simple as some think. Contrary to popular opinion, Vermont was not taken over by Hippies during the 1960s. While they certainly contributed to the counter-cultural &#8220;feel&#8221; of the state, many of them left after only a few winters. Many of those who stayed eventually chose to shed their tie-died rags, start businesses and become part of small-town life. Only a stubborn few chose to retreat further into the woods.</p>
<p>But other groups—like the intellectual and managerial elites who <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/30/obituaries/30BAZELON.html"><strong>David T. Bazelon</strong></a> in 1967 called the &#8220;<strong><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1967/sep/28/same-old-new-class/">New Class</a>&#8220;</strong>—also began to move to Vermont. Lured by teaching jobs, a nascent high-tech industry and the possibility of leading a more bucolic existence, they arrived by the thousands.</p>
<p>Over time, these &#8220;urban refugees&#8221; realized they could easily join school boards, run for office and re-create Vermont as a modern-day Utopia. (Bernie Sanders and former Governor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Dean"><strong>Howard Dean</strong></a> formed part of this wave of newcomers.) The reserved and taciturn native Vermonters were simply overwhelmed by this tide.</p>
<p>Other seismic shifts took place at the same time which facilitated the development of a liberal-Left ethos that dominates to this day. For example, the election of Democrat <a href="http://www.hoffcurtis.com/attorneys/philip-h-hoff/"><strong>Phil Hoff</strong></a> as governor in 1962—due primarily to the unpopularity of the Republican incumbent—ended 108 years of Republican domination. Hoff’s election ushered in a six-year period of centralization, bureaucratization and government planning.</p>
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