If only the U.S. was more like France . . . .

How many times have you heard that refrain?

Before every election, some progressive or other threatens to move to more sophisticated and worldly France if their side loses.

Ironically, French policies don't seem to help.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden threatens in a new audio tape to kill French citizens to avenge their country's support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and a new law that will ban face-covering Muslim veils.

In the tape obtained by satellite television station Al-Jazeera and then posted on its website on Wednesday, bin Laden said France was aiding the Americans in the killing of Muslim women and children in an apparent reference to the war in Afghanistan. He said the kidnapping of five French citizens in the African nation of Niger last month was a reaction to what he called France's oppression of Muslims.

. . . France passed a law this month that will ban the wearing of face-covering burqa-style Muslim veils in public starting in April. Many Muslims have expressed fears the law would stigmatize them.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h_WrlTwCEiL75NEa1-66RvXda4pw?docId=6144e5464d0840a9a80d7cfda64a74a1

It's not us. It's not because of any particular American policy. It's not because of our alleged Islamophobia.

Islamic terrorists engage in terrorism against us because they are terrorists, regardless of what we do, even if we all became French.