Thursday, January 19, 2006
Chirac grows a pair
France said on Thursday it would be ready to launch a targeted nuclear strike against any state that carried out a terrorist attack on French soil.
In a speech defending France’s costly nuclear deterrent and toughening policy against terrorism, President Jacques Chirac said Paris must be able to hit back hard at a hostile state’s centres of power and its “capacity to act”.
“The leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would consider using in one way or another weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and adapted response on our part,” Chirac said during a visit to northwestern France, where France’s nuclear submarines are based.
“This response could be a conventional one. It could also be of a different kind.”
I don't know, this smacks of unilateralism to me.
5 Comments:
By 
TigerHawk, at
Thu Jan 19, 09:42:00 AM:
Nobody doubts France's capacity for ruthlessness in dealing with its actual enemies. Just ask Greenpeace, or any number of Africans. The question has always been whether France is willing to support its putative allies when they need to defend themselves.
By Cassandra, at
Thu Jan 19, 10:03:00 AM:
Sacre bleu!
I grow weary of zese arrrogant cowboys and zere testosterone-laced strutting!
It is not for men of sophistication... of, of breeding, this primitive posturing... this, this....brutal atavisme!
Quelle dommage!
By Cassandra, at
Thu Jan 19, 10:05:00 AM:
I think it is high time we wag the stern finger of international diplomacy at wayward France.
Yes... that will show her who is boss.
By Cassandra, at
Thu Jan 19, 10:10:00 AM:
Meanwhile, Dominique Villepin (who, it is rumored, is still a man) was last seen standing in line at the Passport renewal office...
By Final Historian, at
Thu Jan 19, 09:05:00 PM:
I think that this means that Iran has informally adopted a MAD policy with Iran. This was a not so subtle hint to the Mullahs of that fact.
