CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, June 23, 2003

The Death of France

The French have, once again, gotten themselves on the wrong side of history. In fact, the French position in the world is becoming so precarious that some scholars are talking about “the Death of France.”

Granted, the future of France is not a subject of great interest to most Americans; however, the mistakes France has made and continues to make may be instructive to America’s future.

Mistake number one: For over 30 years, France has allowed virtually unfettered immigration of Muslims from its former colonies in North Africa. Today, ten percent of the French population is Muslim. Within 20 years, France will be 20-percent Muslim. Moreover, that Muslim population will be much younger than the graying and shrinking French population already facing the pending bankruptcy of its overly generous retirement system

Mistakes two and three: The average French citizen has no use for his or her Muslim neighbors. Muslims are treated as second-class citizens. The average Muslim shows no interest in becoming part of French society and apparently prefers to live in Muslim-only housing areas.

As a result, the policy of the French government is to offer welfare payments to the Muslims rather than try to integrate them into the French workforce. With no real jobs, many young Muslims engage in the drug trade or other illegal activities. Currently, 50-percent of the prison population of France is Muslim. Thus, it is no exaggeration to say Muslims in France are regarded with fear, hatred and suspicion.

Yet, it is the foreign policy of French President, Jacques Chirac, to align France with the Arab dictatorships in a blatant attempt for France to become the European leader of the Arab world. Chirac’s desire to lead the Arab world makes no sense unless understood in the context of the desire of the French to recapture the prestige France enjoyed in the days of Napoleon or de Gaulle.

Today, the French have no army and no police forces worthy of mention. In the Congo, the French can’t even keep two cannibal factions from eating each other. Attempts by the French to dominate the United Nations and the European Union have failed. Because they can’t find anyone else to lead, Chirac tries to be the European patron of the Arab dictatorships in Algeria, Libya and Syria, just as he was the patron of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

For example, just when the United States spotlighted Palestinian Authority President, Yassir Arafat, for the terrorist he is, Chirac tries to rehabilitate Arafat by sending the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, to call upon Arafat

Chirac seems oblivious to the fact that the Arab dictatorships are losers now and will continue to be losers until they stop trying to live in the 14th Century and start making the adjustments needed to be successful in the 21st Century.

So what’s the difference between France with its burgeoning Arab population and the United States where Latinos have become our largest minority and will, if present trends continue, lead to the overall “browning” of America?

Historically, those who immigrate into this country do so because they want to share the values of the American Dream. They want to and are being integrated into our society. For the most part, they are Christians with a strong work ethic. Most want a J-O-B, not welfare. They, along with our non-Christian Asian immigrants are entrepreneurs by nature. They seek the two essential elements of 21st Century success: freedom and capitalism.

Meanwhile, we need to watch what the French are doing about the shift in their demographics and make sure we do not make the mistakes they are making. On the foreign policy front, the United States is leading a coalition of the world’s most successful nations and leaving the leadership of the losers to the French. C’est la mort.

William Hamilton, a nationally syndicated columnist and featured commentator for USA Today, is the co-author of The Grand Conspiracy and The Panama Conspiracy – novels about terrorist attacks on Colorado’s water supply and on the Panama Canal, respectively.

©2003. William Hamilton

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com