08 November 2005

Those Who Won't Help Themselves

I'm not going to sugar coat this one, so hold onto your butts.

You don't really even need to be looking at the news right now to know that the biggest story in the world at this moment is the rioting, violence, and vandalism that's been going on in Paris for nearly two weeks. Thousands have been arrested, thousands of vehicles and numerous buildings have been destroyed, police officers have been shot, petrol bomb factories have been raided, and at least one man has died. Ladies and gentlemen, it doesn't get much worse than it is right now, and it's spread to Belgium and Germany.

Now, I don't harbor any inherent ill will against the French. Hell, that picture of me to your right was taken in Paris. I know folks in France who are almost like family. We conservative bloggers have a well-earned reputation of giving the French a good ribbing for the things that they do, and let's be honest: the French deserve it. That doesn't mean that I want to see Paris overrun by a bunch of savages. Let's be honest, folks: most of the people reading this blog have more in common with Jacques and Michelle Douze Pack than we do with Abu Abdullah ibn Haroun al-Libbi.

France has a real problem, and the blogosphere's been pointing it out for a long time. Whether you agree with them or not, French society in the twenty-first century is based on the strict implementation of two concepts: secularism and pluralism. Politically, the French eschew religion, and do everything possible to quarantine it. Unfortunately, a lax immigration policy has resulted in a large population of uneducated, unemployable French-born Muslim youth. They're in a nation where religion has been ejected from society, for better or for worse, and they want to impose a harsh, unyielding system of religious law.

Just as an illustration, try to picture a group of people moving to America who hate baseball, apple pie, pork sausages, classic cars, capitalism, and freedom. Picture them completely failing to assimilate into society. Picture them simmering in semi-autonomy, accomplishing nothing, and desiring the whole time to bomb Wrigley Field, cut down every apple tree, kill and burn every pig, torch every classic car, impose socialism, and completely eliminate any and all freedoms. Now change the listed items to bicycling, wine, cheese, artwork, socialism, and secularism. Welcome to France.

Jacques Chirac's government has had a somewhat schizophrenic response in the past few years to this problem. They haven't done much to stop the inward flow of North African and Arab immigrants. They haven't done anything to improve the unemployment rate. Muslims who were once assimilated into French culture by way of compulsory military service are now left to fester and seethe. The French government basically invaded the Ivory Coast, but couldn't be bothered to help us with terrorism in Iraq. Instead, the Chirac government made a point of banning hijab in schools. Basically, the self-appointed foil to American political supremacy has demonstrated a near-total misunderstanding of the nature and severity of the conflict between militant Islam and Western democracy.

Aaron has some great coverage of what's going on over there. One of the things that he notes is that the Chirac government won't deploy the military yet, saying that the situation hasn't gotten that bad. What's going on in France right now makes the L.A. riots look tame and self-contained. In 1992, the Marines were deployed to back up police. The French need to do the same thing; if they're not going to help us in Iraq, they may as well help themselves.

Here are a few things that I, your friendly neighborhood Super Fly, think would go far toward solving both the immediate problem. I expect the French government to institute none of these policies.

  • French police need to be issued firearms, and given orders to use them. They need to be wearing body armor, and instituting a shoot to kill policy against anyone caught torching cars, shooting at cops, lighting people on fire, et cetera.
  • Chirac needs to follow up his declaration of a national emergency with deployment of available troops, assuming that such a move is legally possible.
  • The French government needs to deport militant clerics and any rioters who aren't shot. These are, at most, second-generation French residents, and many of them probably aren't citizens.
  • The French government needs to seriously retool its immigration policies. When France's own citizens and residents are its biggest threat to national security, then France has a real problem, and it's spreading through Europe due to French inaction.
  • The French need to come up with ways of integrating immigrants into society; these semi-autonomous suburbs with forty percent unemployment, government housing, and no police patrols are the height of stupidity.

    Chaos is ruling the streets of France, because the disaffected immigrants saw the French government and police as weak, and the French government proved them right. Instead of cracking down hard initially and restoring order, Chirac and his cronies sat on the issue, and now it's almost two weeks later, and there are more cars burning, more arrests, and more casualties. The way to stop this chaos is not with gentle threats; it's by putting the fear of the French into foreigners. The French have pussyfooted around it, and now it's coming back to bite them. They no longer have the option of a diplomatic or political solution. The only solution now is force.
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