France defends right to nuclear reply to terrorism

[Kellanved]

BREST, France (Reuters) - 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 centers 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."

...
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-01-19T115423Z_01_L19737317_RTRUKOC_0_US-NUCLEAR-ARMS-FRANCE.xml

[rooboy]

1. Nice to see France getting back to its old brutality. n/t

[Bike Punk]

2. I dare bush to say the same thing

the best he can muster is "A millitary option is still on the table..."

who is the pussy now, america™?

Does this mean we can no longer poke fun at the french?

[still_one]

3. the question is what if it isn't a "STATE" but a terrorist group

[architect359]

13. Than it's a different matter, the retaliation is against a "STATE" n/t

[still_one]

14. you forgot to add

a state which had no connections to the terrorist group

[leveymg]

4. Great. Who's going to be the first to push the button?

As if the world isn't already a dangerous enough place without another threat of nuclear annihilation.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. See what kind of pattern *'s posturing has encouraged?

Now other countries are following our Cowardly Lion's "Put'em up! Put'em upppppppp!" Or maybe more like a Dirty Harry wannabe.

[Kellanved]

6. actually this is more like the "old" Chirac

He always was very fond of France's nukes and is slowly switching into campaign mode again.

Just remember that Bush and Chirac are both members of the IDU :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Democrat_Union

[Ben Ceremos]

7. Mons. Chirac's

position, then, is that he is willing to incinerate a major population center and all it's innocent inhabitants as revenge and retaliation for an act by non-governmental forces. I see why he is so well-respected in the developing world...We live in the darkest of ages.

[Burning Water]

8. So the French are

hypocrites, too. Who knew?

[Kellanved]

10. oh please

You don't want to be called "hypocrite" because your president is a dickhead, so why do you do it with the French.
Chirac is a conservative and won originally on a pro-nuke platform; just remember Mururoa. This is back-to-the-roots for him.

[Burning Water]

16. OK.

So Chirac, and the FRench government, are hypocrites, too. Who knew?

[nautibits]

9. Up tp now I really admired the French

now I dont know what to think.

Im getting really scared with what is going on.

[400Years]

12. France helped the U.S. stage a coup in Haiti last year

They are no better than the crooks in DC.

[nautibits]

18. no, they are better. Much better

they were against going into Iraq from the get go and werent afraid to let their position be known.

[400Years]

20. that had nothing to do with concern for the people of iraq

but concern for their geopolitical strategy.

France, just like the U.S. and the U.K., have a long history of rape and pillage of the third world.
Hell we got involved with Viet Nam by trying to back France's effort at reconquest of that nation.

[6th Borough]

26. I suppose that makes up for Tunisia...no...perhaps Côte d'Ivoire?

:sarcasm:

[6th Borough]

25. Spend some more time studying 20th century French politics and policies.

It isn't exactly all puppies and rainbows.

:sarcasm:

It is easy to forget (after all, they were rather busy attempting to "recall" their world-spanning, scattered former colonies, following fading virtually out of existence for 4 or so years in WW2...rather cheeky, IMO) that they were the first foreign nation to sell and construct a nuclear reactor (and they damned well knew it wasn't for energy) in the Middle East...and as far as I know, it's still humming along in Dimona, Israel.

And that is simply the topic at hand (nukes); the nation of France was not exactly a beacon of light going back 60 odd-years, what with the colonial bloodbaths, rather brutal crackdowns on dissident movements, solo (with mojo) foreign policies (so...that Suez Canal sure is a cash cow, huh? :sarcasm:).

They are the 3rd largest arms dealer (amongst nations) in the world. And the Gaulist wing of French politics has always been rather bedazzled by their independent nuclear arsenal.

[400Years]

11. By that logic Pakistan has the right to nuke us

[murray hill farm]

15. exactly!

But logic is consistantly missing in the "who" can and cannot develop...have the information to develop, expand and have nuclear weapons...some say.."the end is near". Cannot say...that anyone should be suprised if "they" are right.

[Tyler Durden]

17. Guess we'd best not piss on the Paris sidewalk!!!

HEHEHEHEH!

[enigma000]

19. If the President of Israel said this

The UN would be slapping on sanctions by now......

[oblivious]

21. He should have added: "As long as they are small, weak and nuke-free."

[JVS]

22. Operation France Gains the Esteem of Freepers is a go.

[Gloria]

23. Chirac Threatens Nuclear Attack on States Sponsoring Terrorism----

4//The Independent, UK Published: 20 January 2006

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article339823.ece

From the new World Media Watch up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com

CHIRAC THREATENS NUCLEAR ATTACK ON STATES SPONSORING TERRORISM

By John Lichfield in Paris

In the biggest shift in French nuclear doctrine for 40 years, M. Chirac revealed that the force de frappe - the French nuclear deterrent - had already been reconfigured to allow it to destroy the "power centres" of any state which sponsored a terrorist assault.

He also raised once again an idea that he first floated in 1995 that the British and French nuclear deterrents should be rededicated to the defence of the entire European Union. In future, he said, France should regard its allies and its sources of strategic supplies - in other words oil - as covered by its nuclear umbrella.

The President insisted that fundamental French nuclear policy would remain unchanged. There would be no battlefield use of nuclear weapons and no "first strike". Nonetheless, his speech yesterday at France's main nuclear submarine base, at Ile Longue, near Brest, in Brittany, took French defence policy into uncharted waters.

He appeared to imply that any large-scale, state-sponsored terrorist attack on France - whether or not it used weapons of mass destruction - would invite a closely targeted nuclear response from France.

"The leaders of states who use terrorist methods against us, as well as those who consider using in one way or another weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would expose themselves to a firm and appropriate response on our part," President Chirac said.

"This response could be a conventional one. It might also be of a different kind."

(MORE)

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

24. He added: "And those Greenpeace assholes too!" (OK not really.)n/t

[Guaranteed]

27. This would be my policy, if I was President of a nuclear-armed country.

A solemn promise against first or "preventative" strikes of any nature, along with the promise of total destruction if the people of my country are threatened in any way.