Political Skullduggery

President Jacques Chirac of France said yesterday that France is ready and willing to launch a nuclear strike against any nation that sponsors or harbors terrorists involved in attacking his nation.

He said his country's nuclear arsenal had been reconfigured to include the ability to make a tactical strike in retaliation for terrorism.

"The leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would envision using . . . weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and fitting response on our part," Chirac said during a visit to a nuclear submarine base in Brittany. "This response could be a conventional one. It could also be of a different kind."

This is actually a better strategy than the one currently utilized by the United States. The U.S. has an announced policy of "preventive war", a concept that is illegal under international law.

If the United States announced a mirror of France's policy it would save the world from pointless endeavors such as the Iraq war. Such a move would require that the U.S. be willing to absorb a first strike from terrorists. American politicians are too cowardly to embrace such a policy.

The cold war never turned hot with the help of the Mutual Assured Destruction doctrine, which used retaliation as it's hammer. We were talking about facing real nukes then, not the radiological bombs or primitive weapons likely to be employed by terrorists.