Gee, y'THINK?! lol
It's difficult to feel sorry for them. I'm trying, but it's difficult.
Sadly, I will say that I think some of the French "policy" was copied from our way of dealing with certain areas of Iraq. We should have come in like gangbusters, but time and again our military was pulled off because the theory was that these things would play themselves out. Or that it would be too politically dangerous, not because of the Iraqis but because of the left-wing media, to respond with the serious force these places need. Inevitably troops had to go in there and clean them out, and this is what will happen in France, too.
Except that between 15% and 23% of France's military (from estimates that I have seen here) is Muslim, which could complicate things enormously.
No, it's not difficult to feel for the "citizens" even tho they elected the poseurs leading France. I really do feel sorry enough for them to ask the Brits to come to their rescue again--Tony might consider reactivating the Geste brothers, Sydney Carton, Henry V, and the Scarlet Pimpernel.
"Their Socialist and Communist parties sound and act just like the Democrats here"
That's part of their Internationale pedigree. The dogs.