USA Today column answers the question, ‘Why France?’

By Lynn R. Mitchell

After the terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris ten months ago followed up by Friday’s terror on the streets that took the lives of over 100 innocent victims and injured hundreds more, attention is once again centered on terrorism as some ask, “Why France?”

France’s longtime head of intelligence, Count Alexandre de Marenches, warned 20 years ago of the danger that faced his country. In the Age of Terrorism, the principal challenge to France is the presence “within our nation of another nation we do not understand, whose language we do not speak, whose customs we do not know, whose hopes and aspirations we do not share,” as noted by David A. Andelman in USA Today.

Solidarity in Paris: the world rallies against radical terrorism

By Lynn R. Mitchell

As leaders from around the world gathered in France on Sunday to show solidarity against terrorism, it was noted that the President of the United States was not there. Taking Barack Obama’s place was U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley (see Obama, Kerry absent from unity rally in Paris):

Hundreds of thousands of people attended the march in Paris on Sunday, waving both French flags and those of other nations.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were among those who attended, along with religious leaders.