This is not only absurd, but foolish. Yes, France has issues, but please, this latest protest is just about spoiled students fearing they will have to earn a paycheck. I don't think it's the precursor to civil war. Can we try to stay within the realm of reason, please?

Mike, I didn't mean that these particular riots are going to turn into a civil war. By themselves they are exactly what you say.

I just think the overall situation looks like it could head towards something bad if no one shows up to lead the country.

Their system will collapse under its own weight (and the weight of demography) if they don't fix it. And there are a lot of people from the nativist hard-right, to the communist left, to the Iranian- and Saudi-backed Islamists who want nothing more than to capitalize on it if it does. They all look more likely to dig in their heels than compromise.

I think that a lot of the social policies can get twisted into an us vs. them mentality, especially by the nativists.

I'm not saying it's a done deal or anything, but this is a country where things regularly get decided by how much of a mess of things you can make (see trucker unions on highways).

I'm just worried it will get a lot bloodier before it gets better. Call me foolish....

He's no Margaret Thatcher, but de Villepin does seem to be sticking to his guns on this point. Maybe he gets voted out of power for it — on my "voters hate the strong medicine" theory — but you have to give him credit for having a decidely Un-French Moment here.

I think what we're seeing is that France is finally being subjected to the indignities of actual economic competition, as the combined vestiges of earlier colonialism and international clout (UN Security Council member, founding member of the EU) are affording them fewer and fewer privileges — to the point where they're willing to cut sweetheart deals with the likes of Saddam Hussein to get an economic advantage.

To the extent that France has wielded economic power, it has done so derivatively, because it had political power. Failing that, it's been sneaky (Oil-for-Food). In desperate times, it falls back on protectionism, emphasizing the signature French products that they've given the world.

Well, now the French will be tried on their merits, and with Eastern Europe rising producers and India, Russia, and China rising consumers, they're going to feel a pinch. There's only so much camembert and champagne you can sell (particularly if our redneck Congress has anything to say about it).

Anyway, I would agree with an assessment of "France at a Crossroads" (borrowing a title phrase from every third Economist cover). Some well-heeled, legitimate economic and social reforms are needed, or there will be an ongoing security problem.

Civil war? I dunno. I don't see the EU allowing it. There would be an awful irony to the Germans sending troops to France to save it from itself, and I should hope the French pull out all the stops to preempt that kind of situation before it could develop.

It seems to me that France tends to respond to pressures economic and social by simply asserting some kind of national privilege. The problem is that the European Community (and the world community, too) is less and less willing to play favorites. Something has to give, and maybe policymakers over there have finally caught on.

You have to admire these rare moments of leadership, when a government has the right answer and does not shrink (so far, anyway) from administering it to the angry, entitled mobs. The key is for enough of the population to appreciate the effort, so that the reforms can keep coming.

Okay, perhaps I went too far describing it as "civil war". Perhaps I can backtrack a bit and replace it with something along the lines of "civil conflict of a scale as great, if not greater than, May '68".

Would I be foolish to predict a "general insurrection" in France in the next 10 years?