Does anyone else recall several months ago Jacques Chirac said if France experienced a terrorist attack France would use the nuclear response? THe papers and the rest of Europe ask Isreal to use a measured response but nobody rebukes France for their "measured" response.
Nuclear warheads don't make sense anymore, as the ennemy cannot be identified as being a state : if a terrorist organisation like Al Q. attacks, where do you hit? Afghanistan? Pakistan? Saudi Arabia? I think you see the problem. It's the same for Israel at the moment : the battlefield is Lebanon. You can't just nuke Lebanon and then just say you're sorry about the collateral damage... And you can't nuke Syria or Iran because they are not (officially) at war against you. Besides, at the time Chirac said that, it was because he was under pressure to reduce France's nuclear capacity, too costly to maintain and ineffective in the new context mentioned above. So it was more of a political move than a "threatening" statement. I think the next president, whoever he (or she) is, will eventually reduce the number of warheads, it seems reasonable to do so.
PARIS, Jan. 19 -- President Jacques Chirac said Thursday that France was prepared to launch a nuclear strike against any country that sponsors a terrorist attack against French interests. He said his country's nuclear arsenal had been reconfigured to include the ability to make a tactical strike in retaliation for terrorism. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/19/AR2006011903311.html