Saturday, January 29, 2005

French Resistance Myth is Real!

I know that sometimes Americans are suspicious of France. One of the biggest lies seems to that of the French "resistance" to the Nazis during World Warr II. After listening to the French right spout "Better Hitler than Blum" in the pre-war era and seeing so little evidence of actual resistance in France during the occupation (what would we have given for a Gallic Triangle in the war?), now we have actual evidence of the French Resistance.

Sadly it isn't historical but current events:
French militants who join the fight against U.S.-led forces in Iraq could one day return to strike terror in France and elsewhere, the defense minister warned Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press.

The warning followed the detention this week of 11 people in Paris as France's domestic counterterrorism agency moved to break up a network suspected of seeking to funnel young French Muslims to Iraq. Ten suspects remain in custody; one woman was released Wednesday.

French officials have said the arrests were aimed partly at ensuring that suspected would-be militants do not receive combat training and experience in Iraq that could make them a threat at home if they survive.

Proof of French Resistance against an occupier!

Seriously, will the Europeans finally accept that their sophisticated splitting of policy in which they fight terror groups with police methods while opposing US policy that aims at the state sponsors of terrorism isn't working? Their enemies are too simplisme to calibrate this fine distinction. They see Westerners and they want to kill us whether American, Spanish, British, Australian, or even French. For the Islamists, you are either with them--or dead.

As much as I slam the French, I want them on our side. Because when it comes down to it, they are part of the West. They have lost their way in the EUtopia that they pretend they have, but reality is slowly pounding on their door, disturbing their month-long holiday from history.

It is a rude awakening for them. Will they rouse themselves finally? Will the French--and Europe--finally resist the enemy that seeks to kill them?