Chirac reserves nuclear response to terror
Here's responsible statesmanship of the worst kind. Jacques Chirac, President of France and the guy with his finger on the button of France's nuclear arsenal, threatened to use nuclear weapons in response to any terrorist attack on France that originated from abroad. For example, after a 9/11-type attack on French soil, the retaliation would be a nuclear strike on Afghanistan.
Chirac showing his tough, manly side.
From today's Washington Post:
French President Jacques Chirac says a nuclear response is possible against any country that sponsors a terrorist attack against French interests.
Chirac said that his country's nuclear arsenal has been reconfigured to include the ability to make a tactical strike in retaliation for terrorism, the Washington Post reported Friday.
"The leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would envision using ... weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and fitting response on our part," Chirac said during a visit to a nuclear submarine base in Brittany.
"This response could be a conventional one. It could also be of a different kind."
The French president said his country had reduced the number of nuclear warheads on some missiles deployed on France's four nuclear submarines in order to target specific points rather than risk wide-scale destruction.
So France has the cojones (what is the French word for testicles? Ah, testicules. Thank you Babelfish.) to drop nukes onto a state-sponsored terrorist foe. I guess their nukes are gathering dust now, thanks to the Cold War being over. Chirac kills two birds with one stone: he thinks up a novel way to use up France's nuclear aresenal and shows his pecker just before national elections.
Chirac showing his smooth, weapon-like balls.
According to an authoritative survey by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, France has 348 nuclear weapons, including 288 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, 50 air-launched cruise missiles and 10 bombs that could be dropped from airplanes.
An effective deterrent? Maybe. A classy move? Definitely. It shows his statesmanship, even if it is a hollow threat.