Latest News from France

As you probably heard in the news, France has been the target of multiple attacks last night. It is the worst terrorist attack undergone by the country. We have counted more than 6 spontaneous attacks in Paris and its closest suburbs on Friday’s night. As of today, 7 different places have undergone shooting and suicide bombings. Most of these places were public and contained a huge amount of people like bars and a stadium in which a concert was organized.

At the beginning of these attacks, the press released that 100 people were killed in a stadium and 60 people were kidnapped. Over the hours, we learned that 153 were killed. 8 individuals were involved in this mass shooting.

However today, the provisional estimate is 128 deaths and 237 wounded persons. Thanks to the security forces, seven shooters have been arrested. One of them is still free and efforts are being made to arrest him. Consequently, the French President, François Hollande, has taken a wide range of security measures and declared the Red Alpha Plan. This plan is set when a series of dramatic events happens in the country. France has since then tighten its borders and is now placed under a state of Emergency. It means that liberties are restricted for a certain moment such as the liberty of association, and there is now control over the frontiers. Even greater, the country is now under an extraordinary police power. This situation is really seldom and exceptional. It cannot last more than 12 days according to the law.

Some local reactions have described the horror they have lived. They were (for most of them) enjoying life with friends and relatives when the shooting and bombing suicide happened. They all reveal the pool of blood and bloody dead bodies they have seen. Today, a day after the events, my friends and relatives are describing the heavy, scary and gloomy atmosphere in Paris. Life is still ongoing in the capital but slowly; the events are a sign of times of darkness for the country itself.

This morning, the French Press released that these attacks were claimed by ISIS. The main goal of ISIS was clearly to kill the biggest amount of people they could. These places were not randomly chosen. They are all gathering the sense of Paris being modern and propitious to young people being in community. To put it in a nutshell the shooting occurred in places where happiness was in the air. From a US perspective that I share, the vibrating heart of the city have been attacked yesterday. By attacking the most shiny city in the world, ISIS sent a clear message of hatred toward the rest of the world.

This is a black power that is instilling fear. They are all mastering the art of terror but being scared is what they want from us. It would be giving them so much importance that they don’t even deserve. France has to stand up and will.

As an expatriate French, I am shocked and completely aware of the challenges that we now have to face more vigorously. The situation is all the more tricky as a French aircraft carrier is ready to leave France to join the fight against ISIS. It could definitely lead to bloody reprisals towards France, aggravating the situation.

As a transitional threat targeting the world in itself, I stand against the use of army forces in the fight against ISIS. Using violence is what they want; i.e. ultimately leading us to a war. Killing their people is not the solution because they will then kill our people. I have never known a war and I do not want that to happen for France.

Therefore, I am praising for a constructivist approach. The recent events have shown us that using military forces is not the solution and that the whole world can be attacked. It is now time for the international community to implement a Global security plan. If I would be one of the rulers of this world, I would set first of all try to understand ISIS and study it. This understanding could help us predict their actions.

Then, I would rather use a constructivist approach given the fact that a War of Idea is now occurring. Having done that, we could implement efficient measures to deal with its 21st century plague. Since ISIS is a conjunction of extremist religious and political ideas moving on like a dark cloud, we should treat it as it is. The core of the question here is to find out how we can destroy a devastating idea.

In this way, a plausible solution could be the ability to demonstrate the cruelty of ISIS ‘actions to deconstruct its ideological grounds. We have to change the opinion in ISIS internally to make it implode.

What do you think? I would like to know what are you feelings about the France situation!

4 Responses to "Latest News from France"

Jocelyne says:

November 14, 2015 at 5:31 pm

I understand your point of view and how a war will only lead to even more deaths; however, no country likes to feel vulnerable and that is what the attacks have done, they have not only made France feel vulnerable but also the rest of the world since the attacks have brought that same fear we experienced through 9/11 of not knowing who could be next. For this reason, I also understand why France might want to use military force, not only to prevent the image or feeling of vulnerability, but more importantly to seek justice. It is sad to have to resort to the use of force due to the difficulty in reaching stability through peaceful ways such as talking and listening, specially when the real conflict is between our ideals. If we could only be able to truly understand one another maybe events like those of yesterday could be prevented. I remember during this past presidential debates how many times ISIS was referred to as a ‘potential’ threat, and that perception of only ‘potential’ threat played a huge role in our ability to predict they could be capable of something like this. We’ll hope we can reach a better understanding of one another and prevent the unnecessarily use of violence. We must remain hopeful that this can be solved in the best way possible. #prayforParis
1. Chloe Lala-Guyard says:
  
  November 24, 2015 at 12:01 am
  
  Hey Jocelyne ! I understand your point of view. It is clear that when being attacked, one have to respond. Paris was enjoying life without noise, when all of this massacra happened. Therefore, military actions is the first solution coming into the mind. But it rather looks like a revenge, which is necessary to make the other understand that we can reply and be violent as well. But, what ISIS really wants is that we, France and other Western countries enter into a Clash with them. Waging a war with them is precisely what they want. Therefore, the more we are acting violently, the more blood will be their reprisal. One have to think on the long term run to reach a perfect solution. It would spare the life of millions of innocents people.
  Thanks for your comment ! What you say in your post is so moving !
Dan says:

November 17, 2015 at 1:47 pm

I would like to say first that I am very sorry for the events that occurred in Paris this weekend Chloe, we are all here for you if you need anything, I can’t imagine how hard this has been for you. I would like to share two links, one to a video on the New York Times website as well as an article relating the Paris attacks to other recent ISIS attacks.

http://nyti.ms/1l18i9t

In this video we get a better sense of who these terrorists were and what their goals were. The part of this video that most stuck with me was the fact that one of the attackers is a “poster boy” for ISIS, appearing in many ISIS recruiting adds. It is very clear what ISIS was trying to do, attacking areas of large congregating innocent civilians to maximize the impact their attacks had.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/world/europe/russia-plane-crash-bomb.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

This second link is to an article relating all of the recent attacks. One can hope that this most recent attack, while we all wish that it had not occurred, can have some positive result. This attack shows that ISIS is not just capable of destruction in far away middle eastern desolate areas but that they have the capabilities to attack western democratic cities. Hopefully this leads to some cooperation between states that stand with France, against ISIS and their radical ways.
1. Chloe Lala-Guyard says:
  
  November 23, 2015 at 11:54 pm
  
  Hey Dan ! Thank you very much. It is extremely frustrating to witness such an event when being far from home. The first video is very moving. I totally agree with you to the fact that it provides a sense of who the terrorists are. However, they do not deal with their specific social background which is an important explanatory factor. This could really prevent from making confusion between Muslims, terrorists and refugees. All french muslims are definitely not future terrorists. It is obvious that some muslims in France do not feel that they really belong to the French citizenship, the french Republic. These people are often weak people, not to say very good targets for ISIS. Therefore, ISIS “propaganda” works perfectly well in their case. The attacks were really frightening inasmuch as those places are really known and peaceful for parisians people. I used to have fun with my friends in one of the street nearby…
  
  The second link is really interesting. Honestly, I hope that this dramatic event will at least raise the concern of the international community. ISIS must be fight but in cautious ways. But clearly, ISIS destruction cannot be implemented by only one country. I loved the way that all countries adopted the french flag’s colors when the Eiffel tower stopped shining lights !
  Thanks for your comment !

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