France: We Got Nukes, We'll Use 'Em

[Monte Smith]

Wow! Chirac is rattling the nuclear saber. Generally the great powers are ambiguous about their possible deployment of nuclear weapons. If Bush dropped the n-word (nookyooler), he'd be called the worst sort of cowboy. But I dunno. Hollywood has proved to us that the cowboy mythos is elastic. We have gay cowboys now, so I suppose it's just a couple of steps further to French cowboys.

Neat.


« Yeehaw ! » a dit le président français.

France defends right to nuclear reply to terrorism
By Reuters January 19 11:50

France said on Thursday it would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state that carried out a terrorist attack against it, reaffirming the need for its nuclear deterrent.

Deflecting criticism of France’s costly nuclear arms programme, President Jacques Chirac said security came at a price and France must be able to hit back hard at a hostile state’s centres of power and its “capacity to act”.

He said there was no change in France’s overall policy, which rules out the use of nuclear weapons in a military conflict. But his speech pointed to a change of emphasis to underline the growing threat France perceives from terrorism.

“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.” Chirac, who is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, said all of France’s nuclear forces had been configured with the new strategy in mind and the number of nuclear warheads on French nuclear submarines had been reduced to allow targeted strikes.

It was the first time he had so clearly linked the threat of a nuclear response to a terrorist attack.

Chirac, 73, did not say whether France would be prepared to use pre-emptive strikes against a country it saw as a threat.

SECURITY TIGHT

France has had nuclear weapons since the 1960s and experts believe it has some 300 nuclear warheads.

“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 centres of power and its capacity to act.”

France has tightened security since Islamist suicide bombers killed more than 50 people in attacks on London transport last July, and following the Madrid bomb blasts which killed more than 190 people in March 2004.

Despite its strong opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq, France remains a target for Islamist militants because of its intelligence links with the United States and Britain.

Last July, national police service chief Michel Gaudin said a radical Algerian Islamist group, the GSPC, had been in contact with al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, about launching attacks in France.

Since the end of the Cold War, questions have been raised about the usefulness of the nuclear programme, which makes up some 10 percent of the overall defence budget.

Chirac’s government is under pressure to cut spending as it struggles to bring its public deficit below the European Union’s deficit limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product.

“Our country’s security and its independence have their price,” Chirac said.


© Reuters Limited

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by Monte

We have gay cowboys now, so I suppose it's just a couple of steps further to French cowboys.

Hahahahaha.....................

[Monte Smith]

Thought you might like that.

[patricia]

Could somebody tell me where this animosity toward the French by the U.S. comes from? Is it recent, or historically based, or what?

[Doc Martin]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

We have gay cowboys now......,

We’ve always had gay cowboys and gay everything else for that matter (including gay Young Republicans).

[Scott Dolan]

Actually, what I want to know about is why this gay cowboy flick is being raved about so much. Is it really THAT good, or is Hollywood just tweaking the moral majority types?


I have not seen it, nor will I. Though it has nothing to do with the subject matter, but that Heath Ledger is the most insufferable "actor" in Hollywood right now. Quite possibly the worst of all time. Not only can I not sit through a movie he is in, I also cannot believe that a movie he is in could be anywhere near "good".

[groover]

Originally Posted by patricia

Could somebody tell me where this animosity toward the French by the U.S. comes from? Is it recent, or historically based, or what?

It could be lingering resentment over Napoleon III's attempt to establish a puppet regime in Mexico while the U.S. was tied up with it's own civil war. Then again, it could just be redneck resentment of cultural elitism.

[Scott Dolan]

I am full of redneck resentment. Yet, I'm an elitist who hates rednecks.

[Darryl]

One times I went out with this Psycho German chick and I'm not kiddins.

Her name was Oola or somethig crazy like that. Some sort of crazy-ass chick I mets through this friend of mines who I used to play softball with!

He trades coal so he contributes to the collapse of the worlds through enviornmental fuckups and what have you! So screw him.

My coal tradins friend tells me he knows two hot German chicks, right and his was fine! Her name was Helga or some sorts of Nazi she-wolfs name, with all whips and chains and whipped creams! I was well after her fine blondes Tootonic frame but my friend who fuckins up the clouds and ozone puts me on to Oola, the nutjob from hell!

He says, "I knows you can bump uglies even though you dont's spek the same language because you are Darryl, so go for it! Tell her 'doobis hoopsht" or some such nonsense which means "You are fine, baby" in German. I only knows that next things I knows we are totally doins the horizontal bop and it was amazins!

But then I finds out that she was lin love with her first cousin named Edgar or Hans or Hanno or some stupid name so screw that! But next thing you know she's all sendins me postcards from the edge like "My toes miss your toes" and callsin me ten times a day from Berlin or wherever the fuck she was from!

So I calls her and says, "Look Oola, you's fine and whatnot, but you are scarier than a dinosaruus on a funny farm, so maybe you just stay on your part of the equator and things will be okay and I won't have to like runs away from you 'cuase you just fukin' crazy!"

Next things I know there's a dead silence on the end and I think I HEAR A CHAINSAW BUZZIN! Holy no! A CHAINSAW! I grabs my stuff and moves out of my apartment.

My friend the coal dude then told me that there was lots of "Angry German Words" said about me, but I'm like, "Hey, you lie down with dogs you get fleas."

And thats about the only interaction I have had with a Eurotrash girl. But I'll tell you this, it was fuckin scary.

[Scott Dolan]

Carbon copy #67.

[Dan G]

What a great thread: Monte tries (I assume) to start a serious discussion about a nuclear threat, and the first two comments are about gay cowboys and why Americans hate the French. Which, oddly, are the exact two thoughts I had while reading his post. I love it!

I think gay cowboys is shocking.

[Tom Storer]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Actually, what I want to know about is why this gay cowboy flick is being raved about so much. Is it really THAT good, or is Hollywood just tweaking the moral majority types?

I have not seen it, nor will I. Though it has nothing to do with the subject matter, but that Heath Ledger is the most insufferable "actor" in Hollywood right now. Quite possibly the worst of all time. Not only can I not sit through a movie he is in, I also cannot believe that a movie he is in could be anywhere near "good".

Scott, I just saw it last night and it really is that good. Best movie I've seen in a long time. I had never even heard of Heath Ledger, let alone seen him act, but he's fantastic in "Brokeback Mountain" and not insufferable in the least. I was afraid it would be a pious Hollywood production underlining the evils of intolerance with explicit moralizing and obvious sentimentality, but no. It's entirely character-driven, not "about" homosexuality or any other Issue. You should put aside your anti-Heath Ledger principles and give it a try.

[Slurpy]

A Simpsons rerun last night had a segment where Lisa was Joan of Arc and God ordered her to lead the French army to victory against England. Lisa exclaims, "But we're French! We don't even have a word for victory!"

[rollhead]

Personally, I am from the "cruise missile a month" school of thought.

If we had just had the foresight to drop a cruise missile a month down a favorite smoke stack, the world wouldn't be in the mess it is in now.

No muss, no fuss, and no great waste of ordinance.

The only problem with this is that my man Hugo would be sure to get a big one with a bow on it.

Guess you can't have everything.

[Doc Martin]

A screen capture showing what you find when you go to Google, type in "french military victories," and click the "I'm feeling lucky" button.

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by Doc Martin

A screen capture showing what you find when you go to Google, type in "french military victories," and click the "I'm feeling lucky" button.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by patricia

Could somebody tell me where this animosity toward the French by the U.S. comes from? Is it recent, or historically based, or what?

I think the gentle animosity between France and the USA is an iteration and inheritance of the ancient animosity between the English and the French. There has always been bluster over the gulf between the Anglo- and Francophonic spheres. Occasionally the bluster blossoms into something truly great like Agincourt or Waterloo. True, early in our own Republic we enjoyed a close alliance with France against the briefly-hated Brits. But that had been preceded not a generation before with war against the eternally disliked French, and the accord between the two countries might have survived in Jefferson's heart after the French revolution swept away our actual allies, but not in many others. I think we bought Louisiana off of Napoleon and then turned our backs. That's not to say we have been enemies or are enemies, we're plainly too addicted to bickering with one another for that. It's couples that bicker, not enemies.

That's one explanation among many alternatives. It's possible the French just suck.

I have visited France a half dozen times and have always enjoyed myself. I read French literature, follow the zany squabbles of French public intellectuals, enjoy French cuisine and art and architecture and argument. Yes, I'm a loathsome American conservative and thus by definition a xenophobic ignoramus, by jingo!, but at the same time to be any more involved in that great experience of life which is the French experience of life, I'd have to have a venereal disease or something.

[moneyp]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Actually, what I want to know about is why this gay cowboy flick is being raved about so much. Is it really THAT good, or is Hollywood just tweaking the moral majority types?


I have not seen it, nor will I. Though it has nothing to do with the subject matter, but that Heath Ledger is the most insufferable "actor" in Hollywood right now. Quite possibly the worst of all time. Not only can I not sit through a movie he is in, I also cannot believe that a movie he is in could be anywhere near "good".

I liked it.

Yes, I think it's good, and given that the focus isn't on so much on the homosexuality, you'd be hard pressed to say that it's around just to tweak the moral majority. And Ledger is outstanding in it.

[Scott Dolan]

It's possible the French just suck.

Possible?

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

I have not seen it, nor will I.

I was planning to go see it this weekend, and with this kind of edorsement I WON'T MISS IT.






*I really think Scotty refuses to see it because he is afraid someone will notice his woody when he sees Heath Ledger (or whatever his name is) in leather chaps.

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by rollhead

*I really think Scotty refuses to see it because he is afraid someone will notice his woody when he sees Heath Ledger (or whatever his name is) in leather chaps.

I first saw him in The Patriot, a goofy but mindlessly entertaining Mel Gibson flick.

I stood up and cheered when they killed that motherfucker. I knew that I could at least enjoy the rest of the movie.

[Enforcer]

Scott, you're chasing the wrong guy. As long as this motherfucker is alive, there aren't enough resources and there isn't enough time in the world to focus on anyone else.

[Dr Dave]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

We have gay cowboys now, so I suppose it's just a couple of steps further to French cowboys.

I know I should know better, but it's hard not to think of you as a scumbag when you come up with lines like these.

[john williams]

Originally Posted by mone peterson

And Ledger is outstanding in it.

I can understand anyone thinking Ledger is awful from his record. However, I think he may have hit his stride in Brokeback Mountain. Ledger played some shocking roles earlier in his career (The Patriot, A Knights Tale and Ned Kelly), but he might just have matured enough now to play a more substantial character. Having said that, I'm no fan.

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by JBW

I can understand anyone thinking Ledger is awful from his record. However, I think he may have hit his stride in Brokeback Mountain. Ledger played some shocking roles earlier in his career (The Patriot, A Knights Tale and Ned Kelly), but he might just have matured enough now to play a more substantial character. Having said that, I'm no fan.

Of Ledger, or Bareback Mountain?

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

I know I should know better, but it's hard not to think of you as a scumbag when you come up with lines like these.

Hahahaha...................

I love it when Finch gets all uppity.

Bravo, Master Smith!

[john williams]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Of Ledger, or Bareback Mountain?

Ledger. I've found him to be irritating in most cases.

[Scott Dolan]

So, have you seen the movie? It wasn't really clear in your previous post.

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by Larry Nagel

Scott, you're chasing the wrong guy. As long as this motherfucker is alive, there aren't enough resources and there isn't enough time in the world to focus on anyone else.

Nah, I thought Encino Man was mildly funny.