Don't Gloat At the French

Daryl Cagle says it all so well (click picture to enlarge)

It is tempting to point at the French with scorn and derision over their present unfortunate....ah....um.....circumstances.

There may even be those who would take satisfaction in seeing the entire country go up in flames ("It'll serve them right!").

I don't agree.

It is in the best interests of the United States and the entire Free World for France to resolve the current unrest both quickly and decisively.

The Chirac government will surely collapse under the burden of the riots just as Charles de Gaulle's final government eventually fell (in 1969) under the burden of the student riots in Paris the previous year. Under normal conditions this would give the French a way to calmly choose a new direction for the future. Under the present conditions, however, it will not be easy for the French to choose either wisely or with a clear sense of what they would like a new government to do.

An uncertain and unstable France will only encourage those who may already be exploiting these riots for their own, global purposes.

Riots akin to those in France have already broken out in Denmark. It is not too difficult to imagine similar outbreaks in the Netherlands, Belgium, German, Scandinavia (particularly Sweden) and the United Kingdom.

Such rioting will keep the vast network of European security agencies (including police, military and intelligence) busy for a long, long time.

This distraction will provide a wonderful cover for global terrorism as it seeks opportunities to strike their own brand of destruction and death in the region.

The destabalization of Europe will mean that, once again, it will be up to the United States to bear the burden of the international war on terrorism alone.

While I do not want to see American soldiers patrolling the streets of France as they have done in so many other corners of the world, it is hard to imagine France (which actually had to rent helicopters from private sources in order to contribute to the allied coalition in the first Gulf War and had no means of transporting other helicopters to Indonesia following the tsunami/earthquake disasters except by slow boat) having the police or military skill, ability or resolve to crush the rioting on their own.

Perhaps they should call in the French Foreign Legion to "save the day!"

Seriously, the situation is very grave. Whether this particular spate of riots has anything to do with Islamic terrorism or not is largely irrelevant. If France is shown to be impotent in responding to the rioting of Muslim youths then then the fragility and vulnerability of the French social fabric and economy will have been exposed for all the world to see.

It is likely that the next French government will be far more "right wing" and reactionary than the present government of Chirac. It can also be guaranteed that this new government will be just as isolationist and French-centric as Chirac has been.

France for France!

The World for France!

Vive la France!

The French dilemma is not something to laugh at. Hopefully this unfolding disaster will draw France closer to her European neighbors in implementing continental strategies and policies to bring reform to the member nations and a unified, shoulder to shoulder stand against the forces that threaten to undo us all.

I am nearly inclined to begin eating French Fries again as a symbolic act of solidarity with the people of France.

I wish them well. I really do. But my reasons are selfish.