Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - France Threatens to Nuke Terrorist States

roachboy · 01-19-2006, 06:29 AM

i was reading about this during before i saw this thread, so thought i would give an idea of how this is being covered in the france this morning. the links are all to french articles--the rest of the post is early-morning, bleary-eyed plot summary. all this to give a denser context for the op.

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,...-732337,0.html

according to the lead story in this morning's le monde, this speech was primarily aimed at floating a justification for continued expenditures on nuclear weapons in a post coldwar context---i;ve linked the article above, but wont quote it because it is in french---but there is a denser context for this than the op considered---but given that the source is the reuters summary, this is not a surprise, nor is it the poster's fault. basically the main motive is a defense of the approximately 3 billion euros/year that gets diverted into nuclear weaons systems in a situation of intense budgetary pressure...the article says that the president in france is in a curious position and does not often speak publically about nuclear weapons--the official position was outlined in 2001---the 2001 speech outlines the basic nuclear strategy france has adopted, and this latest speech is being seen as an inflection/nuancing/adaptation of the premises of the general policy outline.
so in this speech, chirac apparently has expanded the range of "national interests" threats to which might trigger a nuke response to include energy, and indicated a reconfiguration of the french nuclear weapons capability roughly in line with the notions rumsfeld was floating a couple years ago--the overall strategy is now more oriented toward "precision targetting" rather than "mutually assured destruction".

the speech also links nuclear weapons to the range of possible responses to "terrorism" and takes note of the situation that is unfolding with iran--this dimension is played down in le monde a bit, but more prominent in the summary coverage you see in the center-right paper le figaro:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/perm/afp_depe....p62u919s.html

an editorial from libération (technocrat-left):

http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=352373

all for now.

01-19-2006, 06:29 AM	#3 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	i was reading about this during before i saw this thread, so thought i would give an idea of how this is being covered in the france this morning. the links are all to french articles--the rest of the post is early-morning, bleary-eyed plot summary. all this to give a denser context for the op. http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,...-732337,0.html according to the lead story in this morning's le monde, this speech was primarily aimed at floating a justification for continued expenditures on nuclear weapons in a post coldwar context---i;ve linked the article above, but wont quote it because it is in french---but there is a denser context for this than the op considered---but given that the source is the reuters summary, this is not a surprise, nor is it the poster's fault. basically the main motive is a defense of the approximately 3 billion euros/year that gets diverted into nuclear weaons systems in a situation of intense budgetary pressure...the article says that the president in france is in a curious position and does not often speak publically about nuclear weapons--the official position was outlined in 2001---the 2001 speech outlines the basic nuclear strategy france has adopted, and this latest speech is being seen as an inflection/nuancing/adaptation of the premises of the general policy outline. so in this speech, chirac apparently has expanded the range of "national interests" threats to which might trigger a nuke response to include energy, and indicated a reconfiguration of the french nuclear weapons capability roughly in line with the notions rumsfeld was floating a couple years ago--the overall strategy is now more oriented toward "precision targetting" rather than "mutually assured destruction". the speech also links nuclear weapons to the range of possible responses to "terrorism" and takes note of the situation that is unfolding with iran--this dimension is played down in le monde a bit, but more prominent in the summary coverage you see in the center-right paper le figaro: http://www.lefigaro.fr/perm/afp_depe....p62u919s.html an editorial from libération (technocrat-left): http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=352373 all for now. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite