A point we missed about the Chirac Doctrine
Here, in summary, is the Chirac Doctrine, promulgated a few days ago:
“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. “This response could be a conventional one. It could also be of a different kind.”
“Against a regional power, our choice would not be between inaction or annihilation,” Chirac said in his first major speech on France’s nuclear arms strategy since 2001. “The flexibility and reactivity of our strategic forces would enable us to exercise our response directly against its centers of power and its capacity to act.”
Tony Blankley adds to our discussion of a few days ago of the Chirac Doctrine:
French President Jacque Chirac last week added a fascinating and unexpected element to the crisis by his barely veiled, unambiguous threat — while visiting France’s Ile Longue nuclear naval base in Normandy — that France might use her nuclear weapons against a country that either launched a terrorist attack against France, or cut off her “strategic supplies” (i.e. oil). The French press, from left to right, immediately stated that Chirac’s target was Iran.
Some of his left-wing domestic political opponents suggested he was fantacizing about France’s quickly fading imperial glory, merely trying to regain his footing after his poor performance during the Muslim fire-bombing riots in Paris last fall, or trying to justify the large budget of France’s “useless” nuclear force de frappe. Other observers judge (I believe quite plausibly) that Chirac is now alive to the threat of radical Islam in France, and he is prepared to threaten to go nuclear to try to stop its encouragement from outside.
The initial reports we saw did not mention the bit about a nuclear reprisal for cutting off France’s “strategic supplies” — now that’s a response to an oil embargo!
Special Bonus
Max Boot reduces our situation with Iran into a single sentence:
In sum, a terrorist-sponsoring state led by an apocalyptic lunatic will soon have the ability to incinerate Tel Aviv or New York.