French offensive

Interesting that Chirac's saying France would nuke a country that attacked it using terrorism and WMD at the same time as his troops are holed up in their bases in the Ivory Coast - 4000 of them, along with 7000 UN troops, decidedly on the defensive.

The Beeb, naturally, has laid all the emphasis on the UN troops and ignores both the French instigation of the intervention, and the French presence. EU Ref is not so helpful to French pretensions.

I liked the way this blog covered Chirac's unilateral declaration:

'“That response could be conventional, it could also be of another nature,"

Stinky cheese at 30 paces! En Garde!! Allez!! '

:-)

Update: Seee also the EurRef comments, where Richard North makes a vital point one should take note of:

'This is actually why, in the grander scheme of things, the Ivory Coast issue is so important. It is a taste of things to come where, as part of the European Union with its military ambitions, we could get drawn into situations not of our making which run wholly contrary to our interests, our principles and against the interests of peoples whom, in different circumstances, we would have supported.'