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Vive la France! |
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All praise due to the French for two recent news items:
2) Last week, Sarkozy announced that the French military would be modestly reducing their nuclear arsenal to under 300. Though the motivations are largely financial, it's still a step in the right direction.
"That is half the maximum number of warheads we had during the Cold War," said Sarkozy.
To put that into context, the U.S. and Russia each have over 3,000 warheads in their arsenal.
As Alex wrote, the end of nuclear proliferation is attainable, and the fight is being lead by unlikely figures like Henry Kissinger. Let's hope the French reduction provides some more impetus to the movement.
though i agree that france should live, that nuclear disarmament is commendable, and perhaps even that the french decision to increase their troop commitment to the ISAF mission is laudable, i must say that i strongly disagree that all praise is due to the french, especially if this praise is supposed to be aimed at sarkozy. while the move to reduce the number of warheads in the french arsenal may possibly have a positive impact on international non-proliferation, the motivation is all financial, as you note. sarkozy apparently made no secret out of this, though he did attempt to frame it as a political virtue in the service of disarmament. nontheless, the point is that sarkozy's planned reduction of the french nuclear arsenal is secondary to his nuclear policy making. the disarmament proposals accompanied broader decisions as a mere flank. indeed, sarkozy has deliberately returned to the classic gaullist nuclear doctrine of deterrence, defining the french nation's "vital interests" in consciously ambiguous terms and reaffirming the role of nukes in legitimately defending these interests as well as national independence. the deliberate ambiguity of "vital interests" supposedly increases the credibility of nuclear deterrence in classical deterrence theory. it should also be telling that sarkozy's speech about france's nuclear doctrine and about the proposed reduction of warheads was held at the launching of the french navy's brand spanking new strategic missile submarine of the french nuclear deterrent force. the new sub's name happens to be "le terrible". though nuclear disarmament is vital, sarkozy's finacially forced proposal to reduce the nuclear arsenal coupled with his speech about french nuclear doctrine at the inauguration of "le terrible" does not, in my opinion, deserve praise. but perhaps i'm also partial. i dislike cold war -era nuclear doctrine and i consider sarkozy a serious asshole on all fronts. the french are okay though…
touche. i too am an opponent of cold war-era nuclear doctrine, and in light of your comments it seems that the move will not provide any sort of impetus for the disarmament movement. All of the praise that was due turns out to be a rather small portion of praise.
and agreed that sarkozy is an asshole.