Comment Disons-Nous "Nucular"?

The President spoke at a nuclear submarine base today and threatened to use nuclear weapons if provoked.

"The leaders of states who might resort to terrorist means against us, and those who might envision using arms of mass destruction, must understand that they would be exposed to a firm and adapted response on our part...

"Such a policy of defense is based on the certainty that, no matter what it arrives, our vital interests will be guaranteed. It is the role allotted to the nuclear determent, which falls directly in line with our strategy of prevention. It constitutes the ultimate expression of it... nuclear determent remains the fundamental guarantee of our safety...

"The credible threat of their use weighs permanently on belligerent leaders... It is essential to bring them back to reason, to make them become aware of the disproportionate cost which their acts would have, for themselves and their States. In addition, we always reserve ourselves the right to use an ultimatum to mark our determination to protect our vital interests."

The speech was, of course, couched in the language of opposing terror, and was a not-so-subtle hint to Iran, whose president sought today to expand his ties with Syria, whose president pledged his support of Iran's nuclear program.

Just imagine the vitriolic response to this unnecessary aggressiveness and irresponsible posturing in the European press... if it had been President Bush and not President Chirac who made the above speech. The French are not really anti-imperialists (witness their brutal retreats in Algeria and Vietnam, their invasion of the Suez, their military aid to Rwanda's genocidal regime, and their strong-arm tactics to control the EU as much as possible); it's just that France wants to be the #1 imperial power, and when any other nation's activities threaten their own, they will use whatever arguments or means happen to be expedient. And, unlike America, they do not have the fig leaf of "spreading democracy" to hide their worst excesses behind; the noblest motive of French foreign policy is "le francophonie". That's what motivated their support of the wrong side in Rwanda's civil war. Phonie sounds about right.

The full text of the speech is ici.