Posted on 11/08/2005 10:14:56 AM PST by FerdieMurphy
Imagine for a moment that the City of New York is engulfed in smoke from thousands of burning cars. Young men are shooting at cops and beating anyone with whom they come into contact. Imagine that for 11 days young immigrants from Arab and North African countries roamed the streets of New York carrying weapons, gasoline bombs and Molotov cocktails defying government officials and police officers who are prevented by a politically-correct orthodoxy from taking any offensive action.
Then imagine that while all of this chaos is going on, night after night after night after night, the President of the United States finally gives his first televised speech after the 10th day of civil unrest, and he tells New Yorkers and Americans that he's considering sending in the military or initiating a curfew; that he's called a meeting of government officials to discuss the options they may employ to quell this riot turned insurrection. He gives a televised well-written speech while marauding youths roam the streets like prowling lions seeking those whom they may devour.
What do you think the mainstream news media would do to the President? Look what they did to Bush after Hurricane Katrina and multiply that by ten. And they would be right to savage him in the pages of our newspapers and news broadcasts. We're talking dereliction of duty here.
Yet, the denizens of our nation's newsrooms appear willing to give France's President Jacque Chirac a pass for just such behavior.
Ten days and then he addresses the people of France? Ten days of violence and destruction and Chirac finally outlines a tepid strategy for putting down an insurrection within his own country?
And the news media give him the largest of passes. Here's a sampling of the headlines to which Americans awoke after the 11th night of the French insurrection:
"Chirac Vows to Restore Order"
"Chirac Breaks His Silence on Riots"
"Chirac Vows Action"
"Chirac Pledges to Restore Order"
"French President Says Restoring Order a Priority"
"Chirac Vows Arrests for Rioters"
That's just a sample of the headlines appearing in newspapers across the US. No accusatory headlines for the French president. No condemnation of France for allowing a dangerous and deadly situation to go relatively unpunished. One suspects that the news media are giving Chirac this pass because: (a) He opposed the Iraq war; (b) He's a big, cuddly socialist; (c) news people -- who are overwhelmingly liberal -- believe all the hype about French sophistication as opposed to the redneck, backwoods mentality that exists in the US.
I recall how radical attorney Ron Kuby even joked about French resolve to fight. When the Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge unveiled his color-coded alert system, Kuby, an avowed Marxist, remarked on WABC radio that France also unveiled their own alert system: Green - Run, Yellow - Hide, Orange - Surrender, and Red - Collaborate. He's not far off from the truth and the current events in France tend to confirm Ron Kuby's characterization of the French.
In 2004, a giant of the broadcast media, Mike Wallace, was celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the World War II Invasion of Normandy by US, British, Canadian and Australian troops. Wallace was observed on camera at a table with several US WW2 veterans discussing the differences between that war and the Iraq war. The pompous newsman ridiculed the US-led coalition as a farce -- a phony coalition when compared with the huge coalition that pushed the Nazi hordes out of France.
Well, it didn't take a lot of research to disprove Wallace's assertion, since most of it is common sense and common knowledge. We were fighting the Germans, Italians and Japanese, so cross them out as part of the WW2 coalition. Poland, Holland, Belgium, and many other Europeans countries were occupied, so except for a few soldiers exiled in London, they weren't part of any WW2 military coalition.
France was not only occupied, but they collaborated so much with their Nazi captors that the Germans were able to have the French police to do their dirty work for them when the French voluntarily took the lead in rousting French Jews and sending them on their way to the Nazi death camps. Chirac once denigrated American foreign policy as being overly simplistic. I guess a sophisticated French foreign policy is rounding up thousands and thousands of Jews for extermination.
So, Mr. Wallace, what nations were in this huge coalition which invaded Normandy on June 6, 1944? The United States and Britain, with assistance from the Aussies and Canadians. Mr. Wallace may be considered a giant in the field of journalism, but a high school dropout with access to the internet is probably more knowledgeable about history.
To be fair, the French army did fight during World War II. They fought US soldiers who were landing in North Africa. But once the Americans returned fire, the French soldiers did what they do best -- surrendered. So is anyone surprised at France's inability to put down an insurrection in its own cities? But cheer up, New York Times, maybe Chirac can figure out a way to blame Bush and America for his own ineptness. The governor of Louisiana and mayor of New Orleans got away with it. Viva Le France!
From France-Echos
Nous invitons toute la population à se joindre à nous pour rendre hommage à Jean-Claude Irvoas, dans un moment de recueillement, samedi 5 novembre sur le parvis de l'Hôtel de ville à 11h.
Hervé CHEVREAU
Maire d'Epinay-sur-Seine
Along with a token tee shirt.
May he rest in peace.
You know I think that that our crook --read our President-- is too chicken to do anything. He always wants to be PC and it's a shame. I think France could stop riots if the policemen were allowed to shoot back. (they can't). There is also a sort of censorship in the medias. that's really scary.
Welcome to FR. Don't be shy about your English. If you can give us insight into what is going on in France, you will be in great demand here. Are you in France at the present time? Have there been any reports of violence tonight in France?
As a Los Angeles resident, I can affirm it can and has happened here. From what I can see the Rodney King riots were worse, and the LAPD was an ineffectual as the French police. Only when the Nation Guard arrived did things get under control, and it took days too long for that to happen.
That is sooooo good!!! ROTFLMAO !!
Are you in Brittany?
For sale now on Ebay..
2 Million French WWII rifles.
Perfect condition, never fired, dropped once.
All I can say is Thank You God that the French are not a part of our coalition in Iraq.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
FYI ... L.A. Watts riots lasted 6 days. 34 killed. About the same amount arrested. Most riots last 2 or 3 days, don't they?
Not true--the Police Comissioner was 'Out of Town' Brown, the city's first black police commissioner...I believe he eventually went to Texas and got a job as the head cop in one of their major cities. He was forced to step down after his failure in Crown Heights and it also came to light that he'd been getting some freebies from a compliant underling at his previous stint at Corrections. Ray Kelly may have come in after he left.
There's not much to burn that's worth anything in metro Detroit.
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