Al-Qa'ida keeps its promise to be 'bone in crusaders' throats'

By Robert Fisk

".....If it was not clear last night whether the latest Algerian attack was a suicide bomber – the slovenly Algerian press agency declined to say (which probably means it was) – the target, foreigners working on a dam project – spoke for itself. The local police – in Iraq, in Algeria, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan – are now the men who will pay the price for fighting the West's "war on terror".

Is it worth it? This is the question that the Iraqis and the Algerians and the Afghans and the Pakistanis now have to ask themselves. In answering this question, they will have to ask whether we care about them – we do not, of course – and whether the money they make from working for us is worth their lives. The mere fact that 10 French dead matter so much in Afghanistan – when 10 Afghan villagers matter so little when they are killed off in our anti-Taliban air raids – speaks mountains about our love for the Muslims of this towering, massive landscape.

In reality, we care as much about the Afghans of Afghanistan as we care about the Iraqis of Iraq and the Algerians of Algeria.

I remember well, with great sadness, how we cared nothing for the babies whose throats were slashed by so-called Islamists (some of whom, it turned out, worked for the government) in Algeria, giving the statistics of dead children rather than their names. I printed the names of these poor babies. And it was to the shame of their murderers – and to the government whose savage butchers participated in these outrageous acts – that they cared nothing for them."