French Surrender?

So they're thinking about a cerfew. At this point they may as well raise the white flag. The spineless response is amazing. The offers of assistance and better conditions is obviously having no effect. You'd have thought that the destruction would have lost momentum just from the amount of time that it's been in effect.

Mr de Villepin, in a televised appearance, announced plans to call up 1,500 reserve gendarmes to take the total police deployed against the rioting to 9,500. He also proposed giving apprenticeships to failing school-children from the age of 14, instead of 16, and increasing bursaries and internships for poor children.

A programme to demolish high-rise tower blocks and build more attractive housing would be accelerated, he said, while local association funding would increase.

The violence has steadily intensified over the past 11 days. The rioting, mostly by children of immigrants in areas blighted by high unemployment, decrepit housing and poor schools, has spread across France and affected about 275 urban areas.

Global Guerrillas has an interesting piece on the topic pointing out that criminals are more a part of this than is being reported. They also point out that making mass arrests will probably make things worse. Wonderful thought that.

The Belmont Club has had a running series on the topic. You can read them yourself if you care. Or if you just want to have a schadenfreude moment.

Captain's Quarters has a piece on the linking of the riots with Islamic Terrorist attacks.

The riots in France have little connection to the Islamist terrorist offensive against the West, if the American media coverage gives any indication. However, alert CQ reader Mr. Michael points out that both American and French media sources warned of coordinated Islamist action against France in the weeks before the riot. Agence France Presse even had a quote from the maligned Nicolas Sarkozy noting the imminent nature of the threat in its 9/27 dispatch:

The discussion seems to make some sense. Though I'm not completely convinced, I'd say it would partly explain why the rioting is so wide spread throughout the country. This does look like there is some sort of organization. Though I haven't seen any positive proof of organization.

If this is related to Islamic Terrorism, why are they attacking France. They were very much against the Iraqi war, and have been outspoken against the tactics/procedures that the USA has used. But then they have been pretty good at segregating and alienating their own Islamic population.