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Thinly veiled gloating in U.S. over French riots
Deutsche Presse-Agentur ^ | Nov 8, 2005 | Laszlo Trankovits

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.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: france; frenchbashingorgy; frenchriots; gloatfreezone; igloatthereforeiam; insurgency; intifada; jihad; media; muslim; paris; parisriots; quagmire; riot; schadenfreude; surrender; terrorism; uprising
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To: nickcarraway

I dislike the Islamo-nuts even more than I do the French....but the pathetic response by both the French government AND the citizenry end any hope I had for Europe.

If this crap happened here, by day 3 (at the latest) I'm sure that (some of) our citizens would band together for self-defense, and not a little offense.


61 posted on 11/08/2005 8:27:53 PM PST by Sterm26 (Indict....no, HANG Joe Wilson!)
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To: yarddog

Well, illegal Mexican may not be a delight to behold, but at least they don't live to cut your head off so they can desecrate 72 virgins.


62 posted on 11/08/2005 8:28:40 PM PST by anton
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To: nickcarraway
Yet until now, many in France assumed that what they had regarded as a superior social model protected them from the eruptions of lawlessness that in recent years have touched Los Angeles, Miami, and New Orleans

What the frenchies don't seem to understand is that they share the same "social model", aka socialism, with those cities mentioned which are all rat-run, liberal workers' paradises. What kept those American cities from burning down completely? A few vestiges of free republicanism, like the 2nd Amendment, still lingered in those places. Of course, that is not a factor in gay Paris, as is quite evident.

63 posted on 11/08/2005 8:31:46 PM PST by StockAyatollah
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To: nickcarraway
Well, I read the laundry list of quotes, but somehow I seem to have missed any analysis, or refutation, or other reasoned argument stemming from the cited "evidence".

Does he have a point?

64 posted on 11/08/2005 8:31:56 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (Islam: a Satanically Transmitted Disease, spread by unprotected intimate contact with the Koranus.)
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To: Shanda
I am not gloating, I feel sorry that a once great European Country has fallen prey to Islam and political correctness.

Look at the bright side. Throwing France under the bus may be the b*tch slap the West needs to wake up and stop kissing Muslim butt.

65 posted on 11/08/2005 8:32:09 PM PST by adx (Why's it called "tourist season" if you ain't allowed to shoot 'em?)
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To: Prime Choice

"Hell, after France bent over backwards to kiss Islamofascist ass, it is rather karmic to see them strung over a barrel by the same monsters they so gleefully defended over the nation that pulled their asses out of the fire not one, but twice.

And judging from the latest events, looks like we're going to have to do it again."



Ummm... no, we're not. Might want to ask any of your military family/friends what they think of the idea of pulling France's chestnuts out of the fire this time around. I know my answer is a polite but firm "No thanks." and I'll take my court martial with pleasure. As I've said before, I'm not worried about it coming to that. They're too stupid and proud to ask for our help any way.


66 posted on 11/08/2005 8:33:06 PM PST by church16 (“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence...")
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To: nopardons
The muslims have no plans of assimilating into western culture. To them, western culture is a decadent, promiscuous, alcoholic group that threatens the goodness of allah. Since we are all infidels we have to be destroyed.

Those muslims are using the cultural divide as an excuse. But they promote the cultural divide in their teachings.
They are claiming their territory and want no outside interference from nationals and citizens who care enough about preserving their culture that they want the laws of the land enforced.
67 posted on 11/08/2005 8:35:57 PM PST by o_zarkman44
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To: Shanda
We have nothing to feel proud of as we are doing the exact thing.

Plus our own socialist policies under the Democrats led to several major riots in this country. The only difference now is the subject matter.

68 posted on 11/08/2005 8:37:21 PM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government.)
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To: nickcarraway

*


69 posted on 11/08/2005 8:39:24 PM PST by BunnySlippers
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To: church16
I don't doubt what you say is true...but, like it or not, the military families are not giving the orders.

NATO member nations have certain obligations to come to the defense of other member nations and it's been made painfully clear on a number of occasions that our government will honor that commitment, no matter that other NATO member nations prefer to piss down our leg and tell us it's raining.

So yeah, I do believe we are going to wind up having to rescue France again. Personally, were it up to me, I would recommend that entire damned nation suffer a few years of abject fascist misery prior to rescue, but I am not your Commander-in-Chief.

70 posted on 11/08/2005 8:39:28 PM PST by Prime Choice (I can open hearts and minds effortlessly. I have a hacksaw.)
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To: nickcarraway
It would be more pleasurable to watch the Germans marching down the Champs again, but it is ironic that the Muslims are doing the rioting. Socialism breeds no hope as does Islam.

Pray for W and Our Troops

71 posted on 11/08/2005 8:40:22 PM PST by bray (Iraq, freed from Saddamn now Pray for Freedom from Mohammad)
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To: JasonC

I'm gloatig.

Are you gloating?

I'm still gloating.

Hey Vern, r u a gloating?

Dang this is fun.


72 posted on 11/08/2005 8:40:27 PM PST by kennyboy509 (Ha! I kill me!)
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To: Tommy-the-pissed-off-Brit

Would this be a good time to remember how the compassionate populace of France went off for "holiday" one August a few years ago and failed to check on their elderly family members during a heat wave that killed thousands?


73 posted on 11/08/2005 8:41:01 PM PST by Scotswife
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To: Rome2000

That is some scary map!


74 posted on 11/08/2005 8:41:37 PM PST by BunnySlippers
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To: nickcarraway
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.

==========================================================================

......French-bashing orgy a few years ago, that continues to this day.

75 posted on 11/08/2005 8:44:50 PM PST by doug from upland ("Susan Estrich...get off your kneepads" - Juanita Broaddrick)
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To: o_zarkman44

Yes, exactly so.


76 posted on 11/08/2005 8:46:35 PM PST by nopardons
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To: mthornburg

I'll never be able to look at the Easter Bunny again, after seeing that green-eared thing in the center background.

The one holding the copy of the Koranus.

77 posted on 11/08/2005 8:47:34 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (Islam: a Satanically Transmitted Disease, spread by unprotected intimate contact with the Koranus.)
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To: JasonC
Now, I demand Land for Peace.

Anyone who believes that once they get land they'll be peaceful is a certified bonehead.

78 posted on 11/08/2005 8:48:44 PM PST by Lizavetta
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To: nickcarraway

Eat eeze tray hilariuzz monsewer. Bone jure.


79 posted on 11/08/2005 8:48:49 PM PST by WideGlide (That light at the end of the tunnel might be a muzzle flash.)
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To: Shanda

Unfortunately, I think you are correct.


80 posted on 11/08/2005 8:49:21 PM PST by RatRipper
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