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This is very similar to the events of Fallujah. After the initial provocation and civil unrest, there was a period of time when Iraq held it's breath, wondering if we were going to smash the city in rage, or back down in fear.

Our mistake was thinking that the Sunnis would understand anything other response.

So, despite our motives and noble intent to find a peaceful solution, our actions were universally perceived as 'backing down'. This emboldened the resistance, and lead to a devastating and bloody siege that left the city in ruins. Our generally admirable desire to negotiate and seek understanding actually costs lives and prolongs problems when they aren't caused by a lack of understanding in the first place.

Now, these sububrs in France are becoming the Fallujah to Paris's Baghdad. A symbol of successful defiance. A base of strength from which to hide, recruit, and plan. The longer the French wait to act, the weaker and more vulnerable they will be perceived to be. Should they fail to do anything at all, then they are setting up a nightmare scenario where local extremist leaders will have built street credibility, connections and a myth of valorous resistance. Those are the building blocks of a real insurgency. Treating the heads of these extremist gangs as serious, legitimate leaders and opening dialog with them will be like spraying gas on the fire.

France will wish they had dealt with this while they had the chance, rather than waste time in empty negotiations. These rioters aren't motivated by a lack of sensitivity, economic opportunity and understanding. If they were, every city in North Africa would be in flames.

The rioters want power, and they intend to take as much from the French as they can get.

Somewhere within these mobs, France's 'Abu Musab al Zarqawi' is coming to power.

Bingo. Complicating the present problem is the fact that France didn't convey full citizenship upon Muslim immigrants, so they feel stigmatized. You have to be born there to be truly French. They say they're called names, etc., are the last hired, first fired, and the French lumped them all into ghettoes. They made a bad problem worse. A fool should have seen this coming, and yes, how soon before Syrian or Iranian Muslim terrorists move in to begin the final takeover?