French Generals' Letter to Macron

A few weeks ago witnessed the publication, in the French periodical Valeurs Actuelles, of a rather extraordinary letter. It was addressed to the members of the French government and signed by 1,000 service personnel of the French military, including 25 retired generals.  Here is the letter in full, as translated by the Irish website TheBurkean:

Mr. President,

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Government,

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Parliament,

This is a serious time, France is in peril, several mortal dangers threaten her. We who, even after retirement, remain soldiers of France cannot in the present circumstances remain indifferent to the fate of our beautiful country.

Our tricolour flags are not just a piece of cloth, they symbolise the tradition of those who, whatever their skin colour or creed, have served France through the ages and given their lives for her. On these flags we find in gold letters the words “Honneur et Patrie“. Now, our honour today lies in denouncing the disintegration that is affecting our country.

A disintegration which, through a certain anti-racism, has only one aim: to create on our soil a malaise and even a hatred between communities. Today, some speak of racialism, nativism and decolonial theories, but through these terms it is the racial war that these hateful and fanatical supporters want. They despise our country, its traditions, its culture, and want to see it dissolve by tearing away its past and its history. Thus they criticise, via the biases of statues, former military and civilian glories, analysing words many centuries old.

A disintegration which, together with Islamism and the hordes of the banlieue, is leading to the detachment of many parts of the nation, to transform them into territories subject to dogmas which are contrary to our constitution. However, for every Frenchman, whatever his belief or non-belief, all of France must be his home; there cannot and must not be any town or district where the laws of the Republic do not apply.

A disintegration because hatred takes precedence over fraternity, as it does in demonstrations where power uses the forces of order as auxiliary agents and scapegoats, against those French in yellow vests who are expressing their despair. Meanwhile hooded individuals infiltrate and ransack businesses, threatening these same forces of order. However, the latter are only applying the directives, which are sometimes contradictory, and are given by you, the rulers.

The dangers are growing, the violence is increasing day by day. Who would have predicted ten years ago that a teacher would one day be decapitated outside his school? We, the servants of the Nation, who have always been ready to put our skin in the game — as our military status demanded — cannot be passive spectators of such actions.

It is therefore imperative that those who lead our country find the courage to eradicate these dangers. To do this, it is often enough to apply without weakness the laws that already exist. Do not forget that, like us, a large majority of our fellow citizens are fed up with your wavering and your guilty silences.

As Cardinal Mercier, Primate of Belgium, said: “When prudence is everywhere, courage is nowhere.” So, ladies and gentlemen, enough procrastination, the hour is serious, the work is colossal; do not waste time and know that we are ready to support those policies which take into consideration the safeguarding of the nation.

On the other hand, if nothing is done, laxity will continue to spread inexorably in society, in the end causing an explosion and the intervention of our active comrades on the national territory, in a perilous mission to protect our civilisational values and safeguard our compatriots.

We see that it is no longer time to procrastinate, otherwise tomorrow this growing chaos will be put to an end by civil war, and the deaths, for which you will be responsible, will be counted in thousands.

There are several things to note about this letter:

1. There hasn't been much coverage of this letter in English language press, and such coverage that does exist tends to be dismissive in tone. A few radical left-wing sites evince signs of alarm at the letter, even going so far as to suggest that it amounts to a threat of a coup. But the dominant response  by mainstream press is to try to convince us all that this is a matter of little concern. That could be the correct response . Perhaps this is nothing or hardly nothing. But given the fact that French military personnel are supposed to be politically "neutral," it's hard to believe this is an absolute nothing. The French military personnel, even if retired, face repercussions for signing their name to this document. That alone should suggest this might be something to take seriously. Moreover, there very fact that the mainstream press should be so eager to either ignore or dismiss this letter may tell in its favor. The mainstream press, which is little more than the organ of the neo-liberal plutocratic elite (and their allies on the far left) is hardly a bastion of truth and honest discussion of current events.
2. A Harris poll found that 58% of French citizens support the letter, and 49% would support the military taking action without the French government's permission. These polling results are perhaps of greater significance than the letter itself, for they show the degree to which normal people are fed up with the conduct of their government toward Islamic terrorism and Antifa. Most people want to live in peace. They look to their government to insure that this happens. When, however, the government fails in this particular duty, they begin to look elsewhere for protection. In France, elsewhere could mean the army. Who else can they look to for protection?
3. Marine Le Pen has come out in support of the letter. Why is this significance? Well, if 58% of France sides with the letter, Le Pen's support could give her enough electoral heft to finally win the Presidency in next year's elections. While most experts think that Macron will be re-elected (despite his unpopularity in France), it is acknowledged that Le Pen could make the election very close. By supporting this letter, Le Pen is signifying that she's willing to do what it takes to put an end to Islamic extremism and put an end to the notorious "no-go" zones. This could give her a shot at pulling off an upset at next year's presidential elections.
4. Anyone who reads this letter who is not on the far (or at least the "hard") left will find it quite moderate in tone (despite the dire warnings at the end of it). It is not a call for civil war or a coup. It's not even a threat. It's rather a warning: if you don't take the threat of Islamaic extremism and Antifa seriously, the country could plunge into a sanguinary civil war. This will happen for the reasons I gave above: because people want to live in peace and they will give their allegiance to whatever institution, whether it is in the government or outside of it, that promises to protect them.
5. It's probably unlikely they'll be any civil war before the presidential election, because the right in France won't do anything while there's still a chance that Le Pen could get elected. But if Macron gets reelected and the violence persists and gets worse, can we really be sure that the civil war this letter warns about won't happen?
6. If a "civil war" happens in France and the radical Islamists, along with Antifa, are put down, could this lead to similar outcomes in other European countries? Wouldn't such an event energize right-wing forces throughout the western world? At the very least it would show a way out of the current predicament. It would also prove, once and for all, that the current neo-liberal plutocratic elite is not fit to deal with this crisis and needs to be pushed aside if people wish to live in peace and tranquility. 
7. It would be hard to believe a letter like this could ever be published in America by former generals of the U.S. military. Americans looking for protection against the violence of the left cannot rely on their own military --- such is the state of things in the world's leading superpower. The American ruling elite has shown signs of being uninterested, perhaps to the point of hostility, with defending its citizens from any violence that derives either from Black Lives Matters or Antifa. These groups can burn, loot, and even attack people (e.g., journalist Andy Ngo) without worrying about judicial consequences. But people who have attempted to defend themselves from these mobs (e.g., the McCloskeys, Kyle Rittenhouse) are often targets of the justice system. This is incredibly dangerous, as it sends the message that if you are white or non-left, it's open season against you and there's pretty much nothing you can do about it. Now as it turns out, the chances of being attacked by one of these mobs is pretty slim, so while many white people are disturbed by these developments, few are seriously alarmed. And if you live in heavily "red" areas (e.g., rural America) you probably have nothing to worry about whatsoever. But people who have seen first hand the crimes of the radical left once it has achieved power cannot afford to be so nonchalant about this trend toward rendering the citizenry helpless against BLM and Antifa violence. And so we now have reports that the Proud Boys, during a recent fund raising event over the internet, raised the bulk of their money from Chinese Americans. Why would Chinese Americans gives to an organization that is allegedly "far right' and "white supremacist?" Well, because they know that the media lying about the Proud Boys (they're neither far right nor white supremacist) and they see no other organization on the horizin that's willing to stand up to the radical left and trade blows. Now of course the Proud Boys are a tiny organization. They're not going to be a major faction in a civil war any time soon. But it's the principle that counts. Because Americans cannot look to the military to protect them from the radical left, they will have to look to organizations the develop spontaneously within society. So far that's only the Proud Boys. But if the violence gets worse and Attorney Generals in blue areas continue to go after people trying to defend themselves against the radical leftists, you will see more organizations like Proud Boys emerging to provide protection for the defenseless. This is the nature of political reality. You cannot expect to harass, demean, bully, loot, set on fire, anad deprive of protection and justice tens of millions of your fellow citizens and not expect them at some point to fight back. 
8. In America there is no substantial right-wing. What passes for the right in America is merely religious traditionalists with classical liberal views (e.g. conservatives like Ben Shapiro for instance). There does exist what Michael Malice calls the "dissident right," but that is mostly a hodgepodge of eccentrics and anti-Semites. It's not something that can be taken seriously. But if the radical left, along with their enablers among the "moderate" left, persists in its attack on American civilization, you may see emerge within this country something approximating a genuine right-wing: that is to say, an alliance of center-right factions capable and willing to defend their way of life with violence. This leads to what the letter French generals foreshadow -- what I call "the right-wing medicine": uncompromising violence in defense of civilization. We have sometimes seen in history in times when the radical left has  gotten way out of hand the rise of powerful forces on the right that have been summoned to crush the incubus. At the end of the day, most non-leftists just want to be left alone. If the left is not capable of doing this, if it keeps inflicting people with "critical race theory," high taxes, insane regulations, and other acts of petty tyranny, and then, to add the crowning glory to all this skullduggery, they won't even provide protection against violence, then at some point forces will arise within society to deal with it. The problem is, these right-wing forces will not likely be terribly nice about how they end the left. The right-wing medicine is a heady dose. It can work and work very well. We've seen it administered against the Paris Commune, against the Spanish Republic, against Allende in Chile, and elsewhere. But the side effects can be rather unpleasant. Far better to deal with the problem of radical leftism well before matters reach such a crisis stage! Nip the thing in the bud, and many lives can be saved. Let is fester and, as the French Generals warn, many thousands will die!