What number French Republic will the next one be? 6th or 7th? I've lost count!
OJ, any book giveaways based on correct predictions when this current French Republic falls?

Bwahahahahaha!

Bryan: It failed a few years ago when they re-elected Chirac. Their just waiting for the garbage-man to cart it away.

Well, if it would help to send the 82nd over to Paris, I'm sure President Bush would consider the request.....

If you sent the French military into the areas of rioting around Paris, based on past history, wouldn't they just, like, surrender?

ONE moral truism that should not provoke controversy is the principle of universality: We should apply to ourselves the same standards we apply to others - in fact, more stringent ones. Commonly, if states have the power to do so with impunity, they disdain moral truisms, because those states set the rules.
That's our right if we declare ourselves uniquely exempt from the principle of universality. And so we do, constantly. Every day brings new illustrations.

Jeez, I wasn't past the first paragraph of the comment above before I thought ("Cheers" theme song, please), "Noam!"

Noam:

Yes, there's only one universality and we apply it to all.

Bryan - The Sixth Republic will follow the First Caliphate, unless the Euro Protectorate intervenes.

John,

This is like that the Star Trek conundrum that causes computer to blow up.

If the French fight themselves who do they surrender to?

"If the French fight themselves who do they surrender to?"

Which might explain why, among all the Restorations, Empires, Republics and German Occupations of the past two and a half centuries, they've never had an all out Civil War.

Raoul: The French Revolution will do quite nicely for a civil war. hundreds of thousands died in the fighting and on the guillotine.

"If the French fight themselves who do they surrender to?"

If we look at the Algerian War, we can expect the French Army to engage in stomach turning atrocities against the civilians. Everyone who has complained about Abu Grahib will fall silent.

I respectfully disagree, Robert. The Left will always maintain that America commits the worst atrocities.

It will be very interesting to watch the reaction at Turtle Bay if the French turn on their "immigrant" population with some particular amount of violence. And what will the bureaucrats in Brussels have to say?

You and Perlstein need to sit down and think about what the black paratroopers of the 82nd thought about suppressing the rioting of their "brothers". I was there in the 82nd at that time, and they (brothers) we not very happy about it. In fact, it filled most of them, with a serious hatred of "the man".

Hate's fine, mobocracy isn't.

Allowing riots to run rampant is a bad idea. It undermines the rule of law - not just among the rioters, but among people who expect the govt to maintain the peace.

Extremism occurs when the traditional politics loses their credibility. The National Front will benefit from this.

If the French cannot suppress the Intifada, more will occur to obtain even more concessions from Paris with the collective effect that the French must become Muslim if they want peace.

AllenS;

Why was that? The riots were far more terrible for African-Americans than anyone else. To some extant Harlem never recovered and many other inner cities (were African-Americans lived) were permanently damaged. For once, the headline "African-Americans hit hardest" was correct. Did the "brothers" in the 82nd think it a good thing for their civilian co-ethnics to be terrorized, robbed, and burned out of home and business? I honestly don't understand.