And this appeasement Horowitz speaks of continued despite having previously been burned by the Islamists. Remember the previous reward of French appeasement back in September 2004 when the French journalists were captured in Iraq? The reward for Frances appeasement of it's enemies was both the capture of their journalists but also the statement by the Islamic Army of Iraq that was then holding the two French journalists hostage, that France is an "enemy of Muslims.

[...] It was the French who sabotaged the efforts to contain Saddam peacefully and prevent him from developing a weapons laboratory for his terrorist allies.

[...] The left is still propagating the deadly lies that Saddam was 1) a secularist who did not support al-Qaeda, 2) who had no role in the Islamic attacks on the United States that began with the blowing up of the World Trade Center in 1993, 3) who did not provide Iraqi soil and protection to Islamic terrorists like Zarqawi, and 4) whose plans to build a weapons of mass destruction arsenal to use against the United States and its allies were not thrwarted by the war of March 2003. All of these lies of the left have been thoroughly refuted, yet they go on.

[...] The lesson for slow-witted liberals is this: The Islamic imperialists don't give a fig for what you do or what you say or what you believe in their behalf. They are holy warriors. You are infidels. You will convert or die.

History will judge harshly the saboteurs of George Bush's war to defend the West against radical Islam. As a result of Bush's offensive, Osama bin Laden and his henchmen are already effectively dead. That is the only reason 300 million Americans have been safe from attack since 9/11.

[...] What is Osama's role in the terror of the post 9/11, post-Afghanistan invasion years? So far as we know it is nil. The Bush war team has driven bin Laden into an exile from which there is no return. He orchestrates nothing; he is nothing, but a symbol kept alive by his al-Qaeda cohorts and his anti-Bush allies in the West.

[...] So another deadly liberal lie, designed to weaken the support for the West's war against terror is exploded: that the war in Iraq is a distraction from the war on terror. Just the opposite is true: the war in Iraq is the key to the war on terror.

{...} What would Saddam do (if the peace movement had been successful in keeping him in power)? Does anyone doubt he would give as much support to the Intifiadists in Europe as he did to the suicide bombers in Israel?

[...] The French have even tried Jew- and Israel-bashing to appease the Islamic Jew-haters. It didn't work. The reason it didn't work is because Jew-hating is only the beginning of their sick fundamentalist creed. They hate Christians and Hindus and atheists too, and even Muslims who do not subscribe to their Islamo-fascist faith.

These are the lessons of France. The question is: will the French and all the other appeasers learn them now?

It turns out that France's Muslim community lives in areas rampant with crime, poverty, and unemployment, much the fault of France's prized welfare system. There are those of us who spent part of the 1980s in Europe, supporting the idea, among others from the Reagan era, that immigration was a virtue for a country and that the racial or religious background of the immigrants did not matter. We maintain that view. But immigration into a country with a dirigiste economy is a recipe for trouble, which is why supporters of immigration into France have long warned of the need for liberalization.

Part of France's problem is that it has defaulted on those measures. The lack of labor market flexibility and other socialist policies have created unemployment at nearly 10%, most of which falls among immigrants. And part stems from the fact that France's estimated 5 million Muslims, out of a population of 60 million, are led by mostly foreign radical imams. Only belatedly has the French state started taking action, pressing for clerics to be taught in France. All this is compounded by the image France projects of itself to its Muslims, which one can surmise is the reason why Muslims see rioting as the solution to any grievance.

It's a barely kept secret that Mr. Chirac led the opposition to the Iraq war out of fear of how his Muslim population would react. This fear is a big part of why France portrays itself as America's counterweight and why it criticizes Israel at every turn and coddled the terrorist Yasser Arafat right up to his death. This doesn't elicit thanks from Muslim radicals in France. It turns out to project an image of weakness. Unsurprisingly when faced with some unhappiness they believe they can pressure the French state into submission.

A number of observers of the French scene have looked at population trends and suggested that France is on its way to becoming a Muslim country (one that would, let it be noted, be armed with hydrogen bombs). Some react to this by suggesting a halt to immigration and even expulsion. The better approach is to impose law and order, more speedily to reform the burdensome welfare state, and start integrating the Muslim community. France could also help itself by dispatching troops to help battle the radical Islamists in Iraq, thereby sending a message to Muslims at home and abroad that France is on the side of those Muslims, the majority no doubt, who want to live in peace

These areas, which some compare to the "millet" system of the former Ottoman Empire, where each religious community (millet) conducted its own social and cultural life in its own neighbourhoods, exist not only in France, but also in Muslim neighbourhoods in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and other countries.

Hat tip - Harry Owens