''French youths,'' huh? You mean Pierre and Jacques and Marcel and Alphonse? Granted that most of the "youths" are technically citizens of the French Republic, it doesn't take much time in les banlieus of Paris to discover that the rioters do not think of their primary identity as ''French'': They're young men from North Africa growing ever more estranged from the broader community with each passing year and wedded ever more intensely to an assertive Muslim identity more implacable than anything you're likely to find in the Middle East. After four somnolent years, it turns out finally that there really is an explosive ''Arab street,'' but it's in Clichy-sous-Bois.
--Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times
http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn06.html
Mark Steyn asks the telling question: If 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 the Americans?
Especially if your economy was stagnant and these youths were unemployed or, worse, underemployed. With nothing better to do with their time, they hang around the neighborhood and complain about how miserable their lives are. Meanwhile, the greedy, decadent, uncultured, ignorant Americans live better than they do. It’s not fair!
I worry about the French. The Muslim Taliban brought down Buddhist statues that were centuries old. The world cried out in horror, but the Taliban did not care. It’s only a matter of time before the treasures of the Louvre or the D’Orsay museum are trashed. Diana the Huntress, the Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa—all decadent representative art that is offensive to Allah and must be destroyed. The bronzes of Degas and Rodin melted down. And Chirac calls for ''a spirit of dialogue and respect.” Doesn’t respect require some reciprocity? How can I respect you if you do not respect me? Or is this an American ideal, one the rest of the world has yet to come to?
(H/T: Neal Boortz)
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