French police are talking about "guerrilla" violence, and interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to wage "war without mercy."

French police are talking about "guerrilla" violence, and interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to wage "war without mercy." The uproar began when two young African men electrocuted themselves in the Parisian suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, supposedly while fleeing police. (They climbed into a relay station and fell against a transformer; police deny they were being chased.) Days and nights of rioting followed.

France's long-running policy toward the Third World has been to truckle to its most odious despots, from Emperor Bokassa to Saddam Hussein; to allow their desperate, unassimilable subjects to do the nation's scut work; and to resort to sporadic crackdowns, from banning veils in public schools to Sarkozy's bravado. For a top-down country, with a super-educated, rationalist elite, this seems like an unsatisfactory game plan. If they work out the kinks, they should let us know.

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