No, this is not an April Fool's diary, unless you want to call the people of France and of the US fools. Perhaps we deserve it.
Those who have gone back and forth with me on DK know that I like to cite history to make a point. It's just the way my mind works. "Has this happened before?" "How does this situation differ than what we find happened in 1970?" Or whenever.
“The only thing we learn from history is that people learn nothing from history”
— Georg Wilhelm Hegel
So when republishing Blue Wind's diary, Obama on Libya: George W. Bush 2.0, and making note of the fact that Obama marches arm-in-arm today with a couple of the world's more conservative leaders, Cameron and Sarkozy, it recalled to mind that in one respect, there's a fascinating parallel to be drawn between today's amateur insurrection in Libya, probably manned by young men who would otherwise be fighting us in Iraq or Afghanistan (another irony, please note), and an episode from recent history:
2005 Civil Unrest in France.
The year was 2005, and the hard case then was none other than Nicolas Sarkozy, Saviour of Benghazi:
Here on the Champs Elysees, Sarkozy toured police reinforcements on Saturday. The country's top law enforcement official [he was Interior Minister], he's courted the French media since the violence began, appearing in police halls and with riot squads in the suburbs. It's an American-style media campaign that's unusual in France, but Sarkozy is now more associated with the tough measures to stop the riots than any other politician, which could undermine his presidential bid, says analyst Jean Marc Illusey, especially after his comments about the rioters.
The event triggering all this turmoil?
A chance encounter with the police on a walk back from a soccer game on Oct. 27 ended with the two young men dead and a friend seriously injured in what the authorities have called an accidental electrocution.
(Source: NYT)
They were immigrant youths fleeing a "routine" identity check by French police. Evidently (I can't speak to this personally) for immigrants and non-whites, such encounters aren't as routine as many would have it. Just saying.
From the wiki:
On 9 November 2005, Nicolas Sarkozy issued an order to deport foreigners convicted of involvement, provoking concerns from the left-wing. He told parliament that 120 foreigners, "not all of whom are here illegally" — had been called in by police and accused of taking part in the nightly attacks. "I have asked the prefects to deport them from our national territory without delay, including those who have a residency visa", he said. The far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen agreed, stating that naturalized French rioters should have their citizenship revoked. The Syndicat de la Magistrature, a magistrate trade-union, criticized Sarkozy's attempts to make believe that most rioters were foreigners, whereas the huge majority of them were French citizens. A demonstration against the expulsion of all foreign rioters and demanding the end of the state of emergency was called for on 15 November in Paris by left-wing and human rights organizations.
As I say, Ironic, isn't it? Yesterday's thug is today's guardian angel.
If you want to buy that. If so, how about a once-in-a-lifetime deal on the Brooklyn Bridge? Or how about your very own power plant?. (Cue the canned applause)
Some deal.