I agree with what you wrote.
As to law and order, what really needs to happen is another riot, with the full flaming violence as in the past, and the lines of rock-throwers at the police and then, when the Molotov cocktails are thrown, the police need to be given the order to open fire with live rounds, the Napoleonic “whiff of grapeshot” that will kill hundreds of the front-line scum. THAT will set in a panic in the racaille that has not been seen in France for a century. And, provided that the film clips are there of some policemen in flames first, it will NOT bring down the government. In fact, watching the racaille flee in headlong rout leaving dozens or hundreds dead in the streets, pursued by the police, will actually embolden France. France will close ranks around the government if that happens, so long as the provocation is correct. The gangs are not going to be controlled by policy or gentle persuasion or economic bribes. They are going to have to be brought under control by violence, by killing some of them in a head-on collision with the police, which will panic the others. But it has to be CLEAR. The police have to stand there and be pelted with rocks and firebombs, and there has to be sufficient “Allahu akbar” being screamed, on camera, while it is going on. In short, it needs good choreography. And it must be caught on film: the long-suffering, ever patient police and the French state finally returning fire in the face of a raging Muslim rabble, and the camera has to film the flight of the rabble and the advance of France in the guise of the police. If it is choreographed properly, it will be the turning of the tide. Sarkozy has to provoke the incident with strong policies, and the camera crews have to catch it.
But I am perhaps too cynical.
I appreciate your excellent commentary on the French political situation. It’s very helpful to us in the U.S. I also agree with your “whiff of grapeshot” theory.