Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Intifada vs. Disenfranceizement

So, what are we looking at, here? What's going on in France, and in what's spread elsewhere?

In Germany, so far night-time torchings are fairly sporadic.
In small-town France, the attacks are creating immense damage.
Belgium may go "game on."

Is it the rioting of the hopelessly disenfranchised, or the beginning of formally rebellion against French civil authority? Imho, it's both, though more of the latter. Every uprising of this sort has always employed "grievance air cover," and I think that those who are involved out of legitimate grievance are being used as patsies by the sorts of folks who were skirmishing with the cops using shotguns and running the petrol-bomb factory that was discovered yesterday.

The blogosphere is divided:

  • Mark Steyn (the "Eurabian" Civil War thesis)
  • No Pasaran!, (uprisings are actually an islamist pogrom)
  • Clive Davis, (openly skeptical regarding the Intifada Thesis, but keeping an open mind)
  • Brussels Journal (Intifada) is taking heavy fire on the blogosphere from the disenfranchisement crowd, but contains credible links.

--good set of links to chew on here at Mr. Davis' site, especially since he's good enough to link up the opposing point of view (which, imho, blows his own thesis right out of the water, but I could be biased).

  • WSJ editorial page, which is addressing the issue from the perspective of finally getting to say "I told you so" to the general French condescension towards how Americans run things.
  • The Belmont Club's graphic depiction of the "Car-B-Q" (credit given in article) smashes MSM credibility about the riots calming down.
  • Yahoo News pulls off the wires to report emergency curfews going into effect tonight.

So... what's actually going on?

UPDATE: Oxblog (which is actually on the ground in Paris now) suggests that, no matter precisely what's occurring, it's clear that the rioters do not enjoy overwhelming support in the cites.

UPDATE2: A letter forwarded via The Anchoress refers to the great number of churches burned, and suggests that a serious backlash may slowly be buildling amongst the seething "regular Joes."

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