What’s A Few Mines Between Friends?

Hey, you whacky anti-landmine celebs, what’s mine is yours’!:

ALGIERS (Reuters) - France, anxious to improve its relations with Algeria, handed over to Algerian authorities the location charts of mines places at the time of the war of independence (1954-1962).

The French army dispersed landmines on the eastern and western borders of Algeria during the war of liberation to prevent FLN fighters from attacking French forces from their bases in Tunisia and Morocco.

These plans of mines between 1956 and 1959 were handed over by the French Interservice Chief of Staff, General Louis Georgelin on visit to Algeria, said the French embassy.

"This decision, which was expected by Algeria, reflects a determination of French authorities to remove obstacles inherited from the past, and their desire to build trust with Algeria," said the diplomatic mission said in a statement to the press.

According to Algiers, which has called for this gesture for a long time, the French military placed about three million landmines in Algeria.

"With the delivery of these plans, Nicolas Sarkozy (...) is trying to remove obstacles that hinder French-Algerian relations", the mission wrote for the influential El Watan daily. The newspaper commentary responds with an editorial cartoon where a victim of a mine says "See, it only took 45 years to say that."

The French Head of IS due in December on an official visit to Algeria. His Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika has repeatedly called on France to repent for "the crimes committed during the colonial period."

In other words, the victorious Algerians wouldn’t demine their own country after 45 years, and still demand “repentance.” In other words, that emotional subservience that can turn Europe’s bien pensent who are otherwise petulant into jelly at the push of an emotional button – whether there is right, wrong, generations gone, or statesmanship and diplomacy involved at all.

- Shukran, ya Viktor!