Monday, November 07, 2005
It Really Is War
France is aflame. The BBC said yesterday France records most violent night, after more than a week -- not good progress. Instapundit has some interesting links and here is some interesting comment.
But this story from FOXNews is the one that I find really terrifying.
As usual, Mary Steyn cuts to the heart of matters in the Chicago Sun-Times.
It's not like it would be the first time we have pulled the French's fat out of the fire. Last time we let them be conquered before we acted, do we want to do so again?
Where are the stories on the British and American diplomatic efforts to convince France of what must be done? Given that this has advanced far beyond mere rioting, we cannot afford to view this as purely an internal matter for the French. The stakes here are enormous.
But this story from FOXNews is the one that I find really terrifying.
Worsening urban unrest reached central Paris for the first time early Sunday and youths set ablaze shops, businesses, schools and nearly 1,300 cars from France's Mediterranean resort towns to the German border.How many riots do you know with organized weapons factories? It's official for me, this brings this whole think up to the level of an insurgency, or perhaps as many have been saying, intifada. Whatever you want to call it, it's war. It is time for the French to stop responding with arrests and start responding with bullets.
Some 2,300 police poured into the Paris region to bolster security overnight while firefighters moved out around the city to douse blazing vehicles. Police reported nearly 200 arrests nationwide.
Police also found a gasoline bomb-making factory in a rundown building in Evry, a southern Paris suburb that contained 150 explosives, more than 100 bottles, gallons of fuel and hoods for hiding rioters' faces, Jean-Marie Huet, a senior Justice Ministry official, said Sunday.
As usual, Mary Steyn cuts to the heart of matters in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Ever since 9/11, I've been gloomily predicting the European powder keg's about to go up. "By 2010 we'll be watching burning buildings, street riots and assassinations on the news every night," I wrote in Canada's Western Standard back in February.But it is his conclusion that really strikes home
Silly me. The Eurabian civil war appears to have started some years ahead of my optimistic schedule. As Thursday's edition of the Guardian reported in London: "French youths fired at police and burned over 300 cars last night as towns around Paris experienced their worst night of violence in a week of urban unrest."
If Chirac isn't exactly Charles Martel, the rioters aren't doing a bad impression of the Muslim armies of 13 centuries ago: They're seizing their opportunities, testing their foe, probing his weak spots. If burning the 'burbs gets you more "respect" from Chirac, they'll burn 'em again, and again. In the current issue of City Journal, Theodore Dalrymple concludes a piece on British suicide bombers with this grim summation of the new Europe: "The sweet dream of universal cultural compatibility has been replaced by the nightmare of permanent conflict." Which sounds an awful lot like a new Dark Ages.My question is this, if the French government continues to play Nero, fiddling while Paris burns, do we or the Brits need to respond? Can we afford an Islamic state in Western Europe? In the EU? Of course, I don't think France is going to end up looking like Saudia Arabia, not right now, but absent definitive action by the French, the Islamic forces will end up with far more political power than they had, power they will continue to leverage.
It's not like it would be the first time we have pulled the French's fat out of the fire. Last time we let them be conquered before we acted, do we want to do so again?
Where are the stories on the British and American diplomatic efforts to convince France of what must be done? Given that this has advanced far beyond mere rioting, we cannot afford to view this as purely an internal matter for the French. The stakes here are enormous.
