War and Remembrance

I have started reading Rick Atkinson's . It begins with the American and British invasion of Morocco and Algeria in Operation TORCH, which was perhaps the beginning of the end of French control in North Africa. The invasion of Morocco began with a fierce naval battle outside Casablanca, resulting in the obliteration of the French task force stationed there. Hindsight, and the perceptions of a few keen observers, concluded that the invasion only succeeded because the Allies faced the demoralized and poorly outfitted Vichy French, and that the real battle did not begin until the British and Americans encountered the Germans in Tunisia.

When he sticks to his military theme, Atkinson is perceptive, and he has vivid descriptions of the career beginnings of such legendary figures as George S. Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower. In these early pages, however, Atkinson seems to have little appreciation for the people in whose country the war took place. Atkinson's tone toward the Arab and Berber population of North Africa is largely dismissive or pejorative: "natives" largely figure in the story as forced labor, and he tends to describe Arabs as dirty and the Arab quarters of major cities as foul smelling.

One statement that particularly brings home the brutality of the war, the disregard for the Arab and Berber population, and the misery visited upon them is the observation that as a result of the vast numbers of military vehicles clogging the roads: "[t]o deal with the inevitable traffic fatalities a sliding scale of reparations was established, paid in the oversize French currency the GIs called wallpaper: 25,000 francs ($500) for a dead camel; 15,000 for a dead boy; 10,000 for a dead donkey; 500 for a dead girl." Id. at 168.