Via @PhilWillSays comes this report of Islamist* terror in Paris: “Armed men stormed the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday morning, killing 11 people and injuring more, French President François Hollande said. The men opened fire inside the magazine’s offices using automatic AK-47 rifles before fleeing, a police officer said.” The ‘Islamist’ bit is not yet confirmed; but, given that this isn’t the first time that the magazine has been violently attacked (not to mentioned threatened, criticized, and sued), and given that every other time it’s been over Charlie Hebdo’s willingness to ‘draw Mohammad’ – well, it’s a well-traveled road at this point, no?
The French actually do not suffer as many attacks like these as one might expect, given how often their banlieues riot. And I fully expect that the French anti-terror domestic security apparatus will be doing quite a bit to make sure that future attacks of this sort are discouraged. That’s a polite, bloodless way of saying “Roughly several hundred people involved in radical Islamism will be snatched off of French streets in the next few weeks, and then tortured** for information. Many will not survive the process.” I don’t think that this is actually a superior way to handle things – frankly, it reeks of a colonialist mindset that has plagued Europeans for the last six decades – but it is very much a French way of handling things.
In the meantime, our prayers and thoughts for the people attacked and murdered.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*Note suffix. That is not a request, by the way.
**No, I don’t mean water-boarding. I mean the stuff that you don’t want to think about too much.
*** Think “Taken”, and ironically, it was set in Paris too.
Had the same thought .. and it was on F/X last night…
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Mew
Already the “poor muslims are going to suffer a backlash” articles have popped up and the blame the victim articles. Makes me sick. Like many said on twitter: its like saying she deserved it because of how she dressed.
Collective punishment is barbaric.
It’s also extremely effective.
My distaste is being overwhelmed by my pragmatism.
Islam needs to police itself.
Islam, Liberalism, Greenies ..
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Yes, there *are* differences, but these are all groups that have not learned (or have forgotten) the wisdom behind policing themselves.
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Mew
Bodycount is now up to an even dozen.
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I’ve come to the conclusion that the reaction you expect France to have is, in fact, the superior way to handle this type of thing.
I’d rank it significantly above turning the country into a police state, while actively turning a blind eye to the demographics causing the impetus in the first place.
It’s not quite as effective as the KGB sending the terrorist leader his brother’ testicles, but the Russians were instructed by the Mongols, and have spent centuries refining their art.
If this continues, maybe the shell-shock-induced ineptitude of last century will finally restore the traditional French approach of smashing it with a hammer*. They’ve already jumped back into Mali.
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It could be argued that colonialism began as an end-around the Islamic Empire to begin with: The Europeans have been colonialists for the last six *centuries,* and only retreated from beating down the natives last century to beat down each other, from whence it unraveled due to sheer exhaustion. Now that they’ve caught their breath…..
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*Classical reference
Meant to add: Modern soft colonialism usually seeks to buy the world, rather than conquer it outright.
Wanted to add – soft colonialism also allows additional players to get in the game (China) .. including players who don’t really want empires (Us) and involves much, much less waste than “hard colonialism”.
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Mew
The French anti-terror folks are very good at what they do. I would suggest that the people involved in this surrender to the Israelis or start killing themselves.
The GIGN are some of the best counter-terrorist fighters in the world. Some of them have trained with the S.A.S. if I recall correctly.
I wish them “bonne chasse.”