Ralph Peters predicted the French riots, and now he diagnoses them; his perspective is so hostile to the French that he almost seems pro-rioter:
As I wrote in my last book, this violence was inevitable. Continental Europe has no model for integrating immigrants into the social and economic mainstream. Instead of creating tomorrow’s jobs, Europe protects yesterday’s. Talented young Europeans struggle to come to the United States to work (but they’ll settle for Britain). And “Old Europe’s” prejudices go deeper than those in our Deep South of 50 years ago.
The current phase of France’s immigrant insurgency with riots in 300 cities and towns will sputter out eventually. But any return to peace will be a false peace. France has been changed irrevocably. The internal enemy created by Gallic bigotry has been mobilized.
Desperate apologists for France’s apartheid system claim that the present uproar is merely about youthful anger, that Muslim fundamentalism isn’t in play. Just wait. Islamist extremists aren’t stupid. Thrilled by this spontaneous uprising, they’ll move to exploit the fervor of the young to serve their own ends.
Expect terror. Whether the current violence ebbs tonight or lasts for weeks to come, the uprising of the excluded and oppressed in the streets of France has only begun.
Meanwhile, every American who believes in racial equality and human dignity should sympathize with the rioters, not with the effete bigots on the Seine.
I think it was Adam Smith who said that there is a lot of ruin in a country. It’s hard to say how close France has come to using up its allotment.
PAUL adds: I believe in racial equality, and worked as a civil rights lawyer for five years, but have no sympathy for the rioters. Maybe that’s because my wife has relatives on the ground in Paris who live among them, or among their less egregiously violent cousins.
Meanwhile Clive Davis continues his excellent, thoughful coverage of the riots.
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