The poll over on the right includes France as a potential target for US military action.  That's just a joke, of course.  Although the French are not exactly on our side these days, they aren't on the target list, either.  Long history of mutual cooperation (translation: us pulling them out of the Nazi camp by force), etc.

Still, you never know when some leader with slightly more boldness and slightly less prudence than M. Chirac might decide to flex a little sagging Gallic muscle.  France has nuclear weapons, and they have an aircraft carrier, and a modern air force.  They could stir up a limited amount of fuss on their own hook, if they were so moved.

In the interest of world peace, of global harmony, and of reminding our French not-quite-enemies that we could pound their 4th-rate country into thin dust anytime we felt like it, I propose a special military exercise:  "Operation Prudent Frog".  In which a simulated, un-named nation situated on the edge of the European landmass is presumed to fall under the control of a madman, who begins deploying his conventional forces for war, while threatening the use of his nuclear force as a deterrent against conventional countermeasures.

Now, I don't happen to know the order of battle for the Atlantic Fleet.  But I'm sure it includes, or could include, a carrier or three, and some Aegis cruisers.  "Operation Prudent Frog" would involve the deployment of Aegis battle groups hard against the French unnamed enemy's coastline, simulating a line of defense against any pre-emptive nuclear attack.  Fighter/bomber groups would carry out simulated attack runs, first against the unnamed enemy's SAM network, and then against their nuclear facilities.  These strikes would not, of course, enter enemy airspace.  This is a provocation simulation, not a war.  Special Forces and commando teams would finish off any nuclear sites that survived the simulated airstrikes.  Finally, the enemy's naval force would be acquired, shadowed, and (in simulation) simultaneously destroyed by combined fleet and air action.

These kinds of exercises are of course very serious to our men and women in uniform, but from what I hear, they're also a lot of fun.  "Operation Prudent Frog" would be a great reward for tired troops rotating home from Iraq. 

Many pundits think it's time to change the climate in our relationships with continental Europe.  They're right.  Let's change it from one where they feel free to work against us with impunity, to one where they're reminded, just a little bit, of exactly which nation it is that has bothered to maintain an effective military in the last twenty years.

In a friendly way, of course.  It's just a simulation.

Robert @ 17:33 | | | . | E-Mail This Post