Still remember only watching the movie for this and then writing the essay last minute.

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The contrast of position between the story told in Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight and “Battle of Algiers” allows for a proper perspective on colonialism to be gleaned. It becomes evident from these media that colonists (the individuals; it’s important to make the distinction between individual colonists and the political and economic leaders of the country from which they originate) see their goal in relocation more as assimilation than control (although this does not preclude the existence of disdainful attitudes). While the native inhabitants of the country being colonized see their colonization as inherently oppressive, and view all individual colonists as their oppressors, and more importantly, enemies rather than bystanders.

It is a combination of the disdain that the individual colonists carry with them from their homeland and the generalizations of the colonized (viewing the individual colonists as enemies) that fuels the interpersonal tensions. These tensions may escalate to an unbearable extent for some of the colonized (by either violence of individual colonists or exploitations of the colonized by their ruling body), engendering a rebellion. The rebels display their generalization of enemy in their tactics and actions (for instance, in “Battle of Algiers”, the rebels respond to the murdering of a select few of their people (one of whom I think was believed to be member of the FLN) with the bombing and murdering of countless relatively benign colonists) and the government of the colonists have the capacity to be ruthless as they are militaristically superior and believe that the people they are colonizing are racially, religiously, or otherwise inferior.

I think that the atrocities that arise from colonization in general stem from this universal dynamic: both parties have justified their own murdering of civilians (which seems to me to be the worst kind of war). These wars of desperation are those that have the capacity to be the most atrocious, and this is why stories such as these are plagued with violence and inhumanity.

What kind of international protection, if any, should all countries have against colonialism? How would this protection be enforced? Does such protection exist today?

Is the generalization of enemy by the colonists justified? If so, why? If not and such a justification is possible, what would be sufficient?