John Bolton was on with WMAL this morning and discussed something that’s been in the news quite a bit lately, these so-called ‘no-go zones’ in Europe that many are suggesting now don’t exist. Bolton was asked to clarify whether these no-go zones really exist or not and he basically said they do exist even though there has been some misreporting on them lately:
Sure, let’s just say we need to talk about these issues sensibly. While they primarily affect Europe at the moment, there’s a risk that similar sorts of things could happen here. It’s less likely here because of our tradition of a melting pot, of assimilating immigrants from all over the world. And to use a word that’s not often used anymore, Americanizing them. I think that’s an entirely positive aspect of American that they just are not really familiar with or able to do in Europe. They have not tradition of it.
So what has happened in a number of European countries is that immigrants have come in, they have kept to themselves in France or the suburbs of Paris… And the phrase no-go zones has been used over and over again for a number of years. It does not connote a complete loss of sovereignty by the government. It does not connote an officially legislated apartheid kind of separation. These are just residential areas that prudent people don’t go in at certain hours of the day. Nor do the police – not because of official policy but because they are worried.
And so what you’re worried about is the failure to assimilate new immigrants from N. Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, the India subcontinent. You know when the British transportation bombings, the subway and bus bombings of 2005 done by Muslim radicals, these were young men who had been born and raised in Britain. they had seen the benefits of a free society and consciously rejected it. That is worrying. And to the extent the Europeans are not able to deal with this problem, to the extent there’s this lack of assimilation, failure to make them into full citizens, Europe has a serious problem.
And I think that’s something we need to be conscious of, I think we can avoid it. But we need to learn these lessons.
Once again I think there’s this huge flurry because of some inaccurate statements that were made – no doubt about it. But let’s try and not throw out the kernel of truth here with the misstatements.
Listen to the full interview below where he also weighs in on Obama’s SOTU and as well as the Netanyahu visit: