De Villepin's Folly

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has tried to take a typically nuanced French approach to stopping the spreading Muslim-led insurrection by invoking a state of emergency last employed during the Algerian struggle for independence with one hand and handing out more social spending bribes with the other.

Neither side is buying.

Speaking for the native French supporters of pre-emptive surrender, Le Monde blames de Villepin for having lost his sang-froid :

Le Monde, the newspaper of France’s political elite, accused the prime minister of sending a message of “staggering brutality” to the youth of the suburbs, who are for the most part children and grandchildren of African immigrants.

By invoking a law created in 1955 to put down unrest during the Algerian war of independence, Le Monde said, Mr de Villepin had “lost his sang-froid” and was sending the message that “France intends to treat them [the French-born children of immigrants] as it did their grandparents. The prime minister should remember that this spiral of incomprehension, of martial fever and powerlessness has driven the republic to its worst setbacks”.

If waiting 12 days to impose curfews is the height of modern France's martial fever, then the French Army of 1940 were valiant die-hard warriors by comparison.

Bloomberg has details of the bribe de Villepin is throwing the insurgents:

In a bid to help cool tensions, de Villepin today also proposed boosting spending on training and education programs in poor neighborhoods and called for the country to step up its fight against discrimination against minorities.

....

De Villepin also said he will restore government subsidies to local associations scrapped by his predecessor and aims to triple scholarships and improve links between universities and students living in poor areas.

The prime minister said in the interview that students must be able to join vocational training programs at the age of 14 instead of 16. Almost 150,000 students drop out of school without a diploma or a skill each year, according to the prime minister.

The Muslims couldn't care less for the infidel French's education or job training programs. If they did, they would have taken advantage of the existing system already. And the native French, being among the most hypocritically xenophobic of peoples, wouldn't hire the maudits beurs even to keep the peace.

Nonetheless, having seen just how quickly the French government will capitulate without lifting a finger in its own defence, they'll be rioting more and making even more outrageous demands for money they'll never spend and programs they'll never use, except to bankrupt the infidels into submission.

As Rudyard Kipling wrote, "If once you have paid him the Dane-geld, you never get rid of the Dane."

Or the Moor.