The Ultimate Irony
As I read about the riots that have raged in Parisian suburbs over the last week one question stands out in my mind. If the riots continue or even worsen, will the Iraqi army be willing to travel to France to fight for French freedom? If the time comes that the French are calling for help to fend off the growing insurgency in their own country, will the Iraqi army answer their call? Today is Thursday November 3rd 2005 and riots have plagued Parisian suburbs for seven consecutive nights. On October 27th two Muslim youth were accidentally electrocuted after breaking into a power plant, sparking violence that has spread to neighboring towns and to this point shows no sign of slowing down.
You might be asking yourself “why have I heard so little about this story?” and I admit that, that is a very good question. The New York Times has yet to run a front page headline about this event. In fact this morning both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal buried the story on page A10 and featured nothing more than a short, superficial story. I will explore the reasons for this mistreatment after I provide a few more details about the riots in order to demonstrate that they are an important story that needs to be taken seriously.
As the riots continue to increase in intensity, twenty suburbs surrounding Paris reported that Islamic youth had engaged in acts including, burning down buildings and public buses and exchanging fire with riot police that attempted to control the situation. Some French officials such as President Chirac are responding to this in what we have come to view as a typically French manner by claiming that the situation could be solved by dialogue and understanding. But there is a growing sense that this strategy has utterly failed and that the French will need to adopt a new tactic or face the destruction of their country.
For thirty years the French of made every attempt to prove that they were an open and multicultural society. The French have been held up as an example of a society that does not judge other cultures or practices. They allowed stood out as the model for what liberals wanted America too look like. They spent the better part of three decades perfecting the liberal moral relativists paradise and in the last week it has come crashing down around their heads. Minister of Social Cohesion Jean-Louis Borloo admitted that “We cannot hide the truth: that for 30 years we have not done enough” to integrate the Islamic youth into French society and deal with their anger and feelings of Alienation. He was all but admitting that multiculturalism and an almost religious reverence for nonjudgmentalism is an unsustainable strategy that provides no security against fundamentalism. The Mayor of the town where the riots began admitted that the French attitude has created “"tinderboxes within its borders” and that the French “can't be surprised when they explode". That criticism of multiculturalism is as harsh as any ever uttered by an American conservative.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has more clearly recognized this problem and called the rioters "scum" while promising to take steps to "clean out" the affected areas. How’s that for multiculturalism? French lawmaker Philippe de Villiers, claimed that this is a sign of how important it is to "stop the Islamization of France," and that the problem was caused by "failure of a policy of massive and uncontrolled immigration.” The French recognize the severity of this issue and the Prime Minister has called emergency meetings to attempt to find a solution to the problem. The French understand that it threatens the very bedrock of the society that they have worked so hard to establish since world war two. That brings back the question, why has the America Media (to this point) paid so little attention to this story?
For many years now the Media has preached to us that multiculturalism is far superior to the “old fashioned” value based judgments made by conservatives. It is hard to remember a time when the media did not value diversity or promote sensitivity and acceptance as desirable goals. These stories reached fever pitch as paper after paper rushed to endorse the candidacy of John Kerry both officially on their editorial pages and in the text of their supposedly unbiased news articles. France was held up as a model of this even handed and strategy and the media attempted to convince us that their way of life was better than ours. Now that this myth is collapsing the Media finds itself incapable of giving the story the coverage that it deserves. They know that this story will reveal that the underlying assumptions in many of their articles were wrong and that the stories which they reported as fact where nothing more than their personal opinions.
The original question I asked, was “will the Iraqi army be willing to travel to France to fight for French freedom?” I think that the answer to this question is that they just might. The Iraqis are currently undergoing a training by fire that will very quickly establish them as one of the most effective counter-insurgency forces in the world. If the situation gets out of hand and French call out for help I think that the Iraqi’s will be big enough to forgive the French for refusing to help them during their time of need and prove that they are the bigger people.
You might be asking yourself “why have I heard so little about this story?” and I admit that, that is a very good question. The New York Times has yet to run a front page headline about this event. In fact this morning both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal buried the story on page A10 and featured nothing more than a short, superficial story. I will explore the reasons for this mistreatment after I provide a few more details about the riots in order to demonstrate that they are an important story that needs to be taken seriously.
As the riots continue to increase in intensity, twenty suburbs surrounding Paris reported that Islamic youth had engaged in acts including, burning down buildings and public buses and exchanging fire with riot police that attempted to control the situation. Some French officials such as President Chirac are responding to this in what we have come to view as a typically French manner by claiming that the situation could be solved by dialogue and understanding. But there is a growing sense that this strategy has utterly failed and that the French will need to adopt a new tactic or face the destruction of their country.
For thirty years the French of made every attempt to prove that they were an open and multicultural society. The French have been held up as an example of a society that does not judge other cultures or practices. They allowed stood out as the model for what liberals wanted America too look like. They spent the better part of three decades perfecting the liberal moral relativists paradise and in the last week it has come crashing down around their heads. Minister of Social Cohesion Jean-Louis Borloo admitted that “We cannot hide the truth: that for 30 years we have not done enough” to integrate the Islamic youth into French society and deal with their anger and feelings of Alienation. He was all but admitting that multiculturalism and an almost religious reverence for nonjudgmentalism is an unsustainable strategy that provides no security against fundamentalism. The Mayor of the town where the riots began admitted that the French attitude has created “"tinderboxes within its borders” and that the French “can't be surprised when they explode". That criticism of multiculturalism is as harsh as any ever uttered by an American conservative.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has more clearly recognized this problem and called the rioters "scum" while promising to take steps to "clean out" the affected areas. How’s that for multiculturalism? French lawmaker Philippe de Villiers, claimed that this is a sign of how important it is to "stop the Islamization of France," and that the problem was caused by "failure of a policy of massive and uncontrolled immigration.” The French recognize the severity of this issue and the Prime Minister has called emergency meetings to attempt to find a solution to the problem. The French understand that it threatens the very bedrock of the society that they have worked so hard to establish since world war two. That brings back the question, why has the America Media (to this point) paid so little attention to this story?
For many years now the Media has preached to us that multiculturalism is far superior to the “old fashioned” value based judgments made by conservatives. It is hard to remember a time when the media did not value diversity or promote sensitivity and acceptance as desirable goals. These stories reached fever pitch as paper after paper rushed to endorse the candidacy of John Kerry both officially on their editorial pages and in the text of their supposedly unbiased news articles. France was held up as a model of this even handed and strategy and the media attempted to convince us that their way of life was better than ours. Now that this myth is collapsing the Media finds itself incapable of giving the story the coverage that it deserves. They know that this story will reveal that the underlying assumptions in many of their articles were wrong and that the stories which they reported as fact where nothing more than their personal opinions.
The original question I asked, was “will the Iraqi army be willing to travel to France to fight for French freedom?” I think that the answer to this question is that they just might. The Iraqis are currently undergoing a training by fire that will very quickly establish them as one of the most effective counter-insurgency forces in the world. If the situation gets out of hand and French call out for help I think that the Iraqi’s will be big enough to forgive the French for refusing to help them during their time of need and prove that they are the bigger people.
posted by the-rubber-stamp at 9:32 AM
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