French TV.
Posted on 11/08/2005 7:53:22 PM PST by nickcarraway
Washington - France's explosion of rioting has captivated Americans, who tend to view the French as smug, snooty and quick to point fingers at what\'s wrong with the United States.
Now it's payback time, and influential media outlets and analysts can barely conceal their gloating.
Conservative newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times are proclaiming a blow to European self- righteousness and the continent's welfare-state economies, which they say are partly to blame for immigrants' misery.
'Just two months ago, the French watched in horrified fascination at the anarchy of New Orleans, where members of America's underclass were seen looting stores and defying the police in the wake of Hurricane Katrina,' the New York Times reported from Paris.
'Every night for more than a week, the suburbs of Paris have been a showcase of Europe's failure to integrate its immigrants,' said the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. politicians have publicly remained mum on the riots that have spread from Paris to all across France, though the State Department has warned U.S. citizens to stay away from the worst flashpoints.
But U.S. television networks are showing nightly images of burning cars and riot police - which Fox News TV reporter Greg Palkot said 'looked like nothing short of Baghdad'.
There's a sense of vindication among conservative writers who like columnist Mark Steyn have darkly predicted 'burning buildings, street riots and assassinations' in Europe's major cities, with their African and Arab minorities.
For the U.S. right wing, it's no coincidence that the violence is erupting in the European nation with the largest Moslem minority. They have long claimed that Europe has underrated the explosiveness of an immigrant population they view as nearly impossible to integrate into society.
Others even charge that Europe has become a breeding ground for international terrorism, alluding to the Hamburg-al-Qaeda cell that helped carry out the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Many U.S. politicians across the spectrum share political scientist Samuel Huntington\'s theory of a \'clash of civilizations\' - or the view of British essayist Theodore Dalrymple that \'the sweet dream of universal cultural compatibility has been replaced ... by the nightmare of permanent conflict\'.
Another reason cited in the U.S. for France\'s unrest is the economic system.
\'In a country where short workweeks and early retirement are sacred, there is little emphasis on creating new jobs and even less on grass-roots entrepreneurial activity,\' economist Joel Kotkin wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
He says the overregulated welfare state itself is an obstacle to integrating immigrants into France\'s society and economy.
Clearly, part of the problem is economic, said Stanford University political scientist Niall Ferguson. \'But the second problem is that Europeans do not try hard enough to make immigrants integrate culturally,\' he wrote in the Los Angeles Times.
Many commentators say that, at the very least, the French riots show that social problems and a bungled or aloof government response are not limited to the United States.
\'Yet until now, many in France assumed that what they regard as a superior \'social model\' protected them from the eruptions of lawlessness that in recent years have touched Los Angeles, Miami and New Orleans,\' said the Washington Post.
Some are also reminded of the argument that France\'s Moslem minority was a reason why Paris opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, a stand that infuriated the Bush administration and U.S. conservatives and led to a French-bashing orgy a few years ago.
'you had millions of seething unassimilated Muslim youths in lawless suburbs ringing every major city, would you be so eager to send your troops into an Arab country fighting alongside Americans?' Steyn said in the Washington Times.
French TV.
So - the American Press is criticized for "gloating" over the "Riots" in France - yet - the fact that the European Press has been gloating over each and every "mistake" the Americans have made over the last 200 years is just fine and dandy . . .
"Others even charge that Europe has become a breeding ground for international terrorism, alluding to the Hamburg-al-Qaeda cell that helped carry out the September 11 attacks on the United States."
No, we don't "allude" to that - we outright use it to justify our claim! Also, it's quite convienient to "forget" about all the other cells that have been active in Europe (mostly based/controlled in Germany).
Lastly, nice of you to lambast the American MSM, yet, I fail to find one single reference to what the DPA/Author regard as the "causes" of the "unrest". If the claims of the USMSN are wrong tell us why. If they are correct, then your just uopset that those upstart colonials have the nerve to point out that the "superior European System" has it's flaws as well.
Who's gloating? This has been a frightening event for every nation to see, and the appeasement approach by Chirac only strengthens resolve to repeat these terrorist barbaric actions in many other cities and countries.
ROFL
I love that weather map!
No thinly veiled happiness here ace, Just unrestrained glee.
Hey france, ha ha ha ha.
Better than ever!!! Me like it!!!!
I picked this up off another blog. Cowardice seems to be the contributing factor to this problem.
Afraid because they are cowards…
Filed under: Culture EuroWeenies— site admin @ 2:09 pm
That’s the take from an Arab kid in France who kicked the shit out of a French high school student:
Some of the attackers openly expressed their hatred of “little French people.” One 18-year-old named Heikel, a dual citizen of France and Tunisia, was proud of his actions. He explained that he had joined in just to “beat people up,” especially “little Frenchmen who look like victims.” He added with a satisfied smile that he had “a pleasant memory” of repeatedly kicking a student, already defenseless on the ground.
Another attacker explained the violence by saying that “little whites” don’t know how to fight and “are afraid because they are cowards.” Rachid, an Arab attacker, added that even an Arab can be considered a “little white” if he “has a French mindset.” The general sentiment was a desire
to “take revenge on whites.”
Welcome to the jungle…
bienvenue à la jungle…
Thinly veiled? Try in-your-face gloating.
Clearly the "U.S. right wing" is insane.
Obviously, it's just yet another mere coincidence.
There's nothing funny about what's happening in France.
What's funny is the reaction of the French government, and the cover-up by the MSM about who is responsible.
Not 'ha! ha!' funny, but 'hmmm!' funny.
Doesn't sound too different from urban dwellers all across America.
So would Ferguson support English as the official language of the USA?
Nothin' veiled about my gloatin'.
GLOAT! GLOAT! GLOAT!
Burn France, burn. Then appease the idiots, then wait for the next time.
I love that map, I also love the French Threat level map I saw yesterday. I guess we need to remind the media that we didn't come up with the word coup d'etat.
Give the french a break, this is the first battle thay have lost this century and we are already 5 years into it!
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