The French opposition to the Algerian war was not focused on a single issue, nor was it consistent in content and emphasis throughout the war. Rather, several ideological camps opposed the war, or some particular aspects of the latter, each for its own reasons. The precise disagreements among the factions within what one can define as the anti-war movement were identified, traced, and classified by a few scholars, most notably Raul Girardet and Pierre Vidal-Naquet. For purposes of convenience, and in order to simplify things for readers who do not find it rewarding to delve into the intricacies of political and ideological cleavages, I have altered somewhat the existing classification of the French literature. Here I refer to the terms Rational-Utilitarian, Marxist, and Moralist when I describe the main camps of the anti-war movement.

The Utilitarian Debate About the Necessity of the War

The debate over the French war effort in Algeria never really focused on the worthiness of the war in terms of battle casualties. It is rather problematic to explain the non-occurrence of this issue, as it is the case with other non-events. One can only speculate and suggest that the relative civil indifference to casualties was the result of the fact that most of the French draftees did not run a great risk when they served in Algeria, for reasons that were discussed in Chapter 6. Still, the Algerian war did not escape a utilitarian debate, though the latter centered around economic considerations.