The French As Leaders

Some pertinent historical facts highlighted here.

excerpt:

Historically speaking, France, as detestable as it has been since at least the French Revolution, has been a bellwether for Western civilization. The French Revolution viciously initiated the rise of liberal democracy; the Paris Revolution of 1848 inflamed revolution throughout Europe; French inadequacy during World War II plunged Europe into extended darkness; French involvement in Vietnam led to American involvement; France's inability to hold Algeria signaled an end to colonialism; French capitulation to terrorism (in Algeria as elsewhere) has from the beginning boded ill for the fate of Westerners engaged in the struggle against Islamism.

Should Western civilization adopt the "multicultural" policy-making of the French government, all of Western civilization could meet the fate France currently faces. France has allowed its Muslim minority to remain insulated and extreme. France has virtually ignored its burgeoning population problem -- decline of native population combined with a drastic rise in Muslim immigration has quickly changed the character of the country. And France's foreign policy has been spineless and capitulatory from the beginning, shrugging off Islamist terrorism by citing to differences in political and social perceptions in the Muslim world.

The essentially French notion that man is inherently good, malleable and perfectible (a notion springing from a rejection of God and a replacement theology deifying man) leads the French government to embrace the idea that all problems can be solved through higher levels of social tolerance and economic support. But just because humanistic ideology dominates in France does not mean it dominates France's Muslim population, nor Muslim masses worldwide. Whether France is prepared to fight or not, radical Muslims spurred by their religious beliefs certainly are. It is irrelevant whether Muslim terrorists and rioters are motivated by a perverse vision of their religion, or whether they represent the mainstream. The bottom line is this: The current conflict is ideological, not social or economic. The conflict will not be solved by sending welfare dollars into mosques or by embracing French Muslims as Frenchmen.