Jacques Chirac: Hawk

French President Jacques Chirac has said that any state which sponsors a terrorist attack on French soil will face nuclear retaliation.

See here.

I take him at his word. I don't think he'd hesitate to flatten any country whose dictator decided to take out the Eiffel Tower or any other French landmark.

However, I think he can get away with making comments like this because he opposed the Iraq invasion. Kind of like "Nixon goes to China" ... only someone who has proven their multilateralist, UN-friendly credentials (i.e. not W.) could say this and not face a barrage of criticism.