Via Reuters:
France said on Thursday it would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state that carried out a terrorist attack against it, reaffirming the need for its nuclear deterrent.
Deflecting criticism of France’s costly nuclear arms program, President Jacques Chirac said security came at a price and France must be able to hit back hard at a hostile state’s centers of power and its “capacity to act.”
He said there was no change in France’s overall policy, which rules out the use of nuclear weapons in a military conflict. But his speech pointed to a change of emphasis to underline the growing threat France perceives from terrorism.
“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 a nuclear submarine base in northwestern France.
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Yeah. I got nothing, either.
Nitpicking, but can a state carry out a terrorist attack? I thought anything a state did on that level was an act of war.
In any case, I doubt France is on anyone’s nuclear attack short list.
It’s some kind of a mistranslation. Really he meant “I, for one, welcome our new Islamofascist overlords.”
Pelosi and Reid have been made aware that, had al-Qa’ida taken out the Eiffel Tower instead of the WTC, Kabul would now be a radioactive crater, yes?
If merely banning the hijab caused shocked outrage among the MoveOn crowd, this will probably cause then to die in convulsions.
Given fate’s love of irony, what kind of odd’s would you give that France might throw out the first pitch of the Big One?
Perhaps this is the French government’s ham handed way of telling certain Middle Eastern coutries that it would be a mistake to make overtures to the disaffected French Youths who have nothing to do with Islam at all.
Heck, I’m for preempted nuclear bunker buster strikes.
But it will still be a nuanced French response. They certainly don’t want to nuke their best (remaining) arms customer, so they’ll probably elect to nuke Baghdad or Tel Aviv first to prove they’re serious…
Well, you gotta figure that the nuclear fireball will remove all those “Fabrique au France” stickers on all the evidence in North Korea, Syria, Iran and Newfoundland.
B
The French have never hesitated to do whatever they believe is in their own best interest, damn the critics.
Which is precisely the reason it was laughable when many in the US felt we needed France’s approval to do what we felt was in our best interest.
Brian, the newfies are part of the Axis of Evil?
The translation is this. Go ahead and build all the atomic bombs you want. Go ahead and nuke Israel off the map and check US influence in the Middle East, but don’t even think about attacking France.
I feel personally responsible for this. All the French surrender jokes have driven them crazy.
They’re like that little kid that everyone picks on, till one day he brings a gun to school and blows everyone away.
“Adapted response” = 100 or so Mirage fighters sorteed over Tehran dropping white flags and unconditional French surrender leaflets….
What it means is “The check cleared, you dummies.”
Where France is involved, always make sure the final payment is “in the mail.”
Word: looked. “Marianne looked, and saw that there was nothing more to get from this dirty one, so to the curb he went, hein?”
BREAKING: CHIRAC’S NUCLAR RHETORIC CAUSES FRANCE TO SURRENDER TO ITSELF
French nihilists characteristically blasé as the French raised white flags in surrender to what French diplomats decribed as France’s “simplistic” anti-terrorism policies
Developing…
It’s unlikely that even a Chirac speech would be unscripted on a topic like this. Is this a message to Tehran?
Unilateral, let us not forget, is a french word.
Of course, now we find out they’re about to offer Iran an alliance as a mutual self-preservation measure, and we’re the “terrorist state” Chirac has his nukes aimed at.
Hey, it could happen. You never know with France.
Do they tie the white flags to the nukes before they launch them? Perhaps this is a new diplomatic stance – Preemtive attack/surrender.
Talk about sending a mixed message. Every time I think of the French as being a military force, the image of a mouse trying to fuck an elephant enters my mind. The mouse is not enough of a bother for the elephant to even notice.
Makes perfect sense. He wouldn’t have to raise an army; he could just lean over after the sorbet course, take a sip of champagne, and push the button, all before the meat course.
I think we should encourage this. Solves a lot of problems.
The French can actually be pretty badass, and note that they have been active in joint counter-proliferation operations (as well as counterterror ops/intelligence sharing) all through this period of ill-will between our countries…
In other news, did I really misspell “nuclear?”
Maybee nails it.
Blowing up Greenpeace, Pacific islands, knife the US in the back – they’ll do whatever the hell they want if it is in their interests.
– Real question is, was Chirac just nuclear dickie wagging, in a “hey we’ve got those too” mood, (the French can never pass up a chance to compensate for their tendency to short stature), or did “something” we’re unaware of happen that triggered this out of the blue outburst?
– Then again, maybe its a make-up position, since their plan to cut down on smog by burning all the cars didn’t catch on….