If Attacked by Terrorists

France vows to bomb itself into submission.

In all seriousness though, Chirac seems to understand on some level that the way to deal with terrorists is to meet strength with strength. Witness bin Laden's latest message. The combination of spin and chutzpah in that tape would make Baghdad Bob proud, and the fact that Osama sees the need to make such a laughable statement, particularly his insistence that al Qaeda is winning in Iraq and Afghanistan, indicates that things are not going well for al Qaeda. Indeed, the reason things are going so badly for al Qaeda is because following 9/11, the Bush administration decided to meet their strength with ours, and in doing so, we have found that al Qaeda cannot stand and fight, never mind actually take and hold territory. As devastating as the Iraqi insurgency may be, its success is predicated upon our perceived weaknesses, not their actual strengths. This could never be said about Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan or the Soviet Union. We had to actually defeat them; with al Qaeda we simply have to keep on doing what we're doing, occasionally swatting at them like a horse swats at flies with his tail.

States like Iran, Syria and North Korea are another matter. We need to figure out how to deal with them effectively, and there aren't any palatable options. As with WWII and the Cold War, our biggest problems are with nation-states. Al Qaeda is just a nuisance to be slapped down when the opportunity arises.