Late on a September afternoon in 1956 a young woman entered the Milk Bar, an Algiers cafe popular with European youth. She looked like an average well-to-do French-Algerian, who had stopped off after a day at the beach. In reality, however, she was an Algerian Muslim, her appearance altered to blend in with café's clientele. After eating ice cream, she departed. No one noticed that she had left behind a beach bag at the foot of the stool she had occupied. Minutes later, a bomb in the bag exploded.
The terrorist attack on the Milk Bar is a key moment in the iconic Battle of Algiers, the docudrama that portrays a pivotal period in the National Liberation Front (FLN) insurgency to wrest Algeria from France. The film has always fascinated me as an entry into understanding the insurgency and the French counterinsurgency. I have assigned it for a class on insurgency that I teach at Georgetown University. Other scholars I know also include the film in their courses. Counterinsurgency practitioners too have gravitated toward the film. It was screened in the Pentagon in 2003 as the insurgency in Iraq deepened, and it remains a feature of formal and informal U.S. government training. I suspect security professionals from other nations similarly study the film, seeking lessons for how to counterinsurgency and terrorism.
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