Why France ?

First I wish to express my condolences to the families of all the victims of the terror attacks last week. No matter the reason for the attacks, there will always be innocent victims; those should be remembered.

What I write below are some stray thoughts on a question that has been bugging me since I heard the news regarding the attacks in Paris. Maybe I am completely off the mark here yet I keep wondering: Why all these attacks took place in France?

Why not Brussels or Amsterdam or London or Rome or Berlin?

Why France?

Yes, the French have been militarily involved in the “Arab Spring”; the Charles De Gaulle carrier has already been deployed once in the Gulf this year between 23/02/2015 and 18/04/2015 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ration_Chammal) and the deployment starting on November 18th was scheduled well before the attacks in Paris took place.

As a side note, the US is deploying Harry S. Truman battle group (again, scheduled) but there are already rumours that the Truman group will not replace whatever is already there.

Moreover, France maintains in UAE 6 Rafale fighters and in Jordan 3 Mirage 2000D (strike version) and 3 Mirage 2000N (Nuclear strike version) – http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/release/3/166089/french-air-force-rotates-deployed-combat-aircraft.html

• Note to readers: In France a “nuclear strike” capable fighter is any plane whose on-board avionics and software allows it to fire the Aerospatiale Air-Sol Moyenne Portee (ASMP) nuclear stand-off missile. Remove that software or do not load the missile and a M2000N is the same as a M2000D. All Rafale fighters have this capability as part of F3 standard.

Still these, militarily speaking, are on par with the other NATO members; UK flies sorties from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus on an almost a daily basis and Belgium was heavily involved in NATO’s Libya campaign.

Yet all the major terrorist attacks (false flag or not all had the intent to cause terror among the populace to advance whatever political / religious / ideological agenda) in Europe this year took place in France:

• 07/01/2015 – Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris
• 09/01/2015 – The hostage taking at the Kosher market in Porte De Vincennes
• 26/06/2015 – The attack and beheading at a factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier
• 21/08/2015 – Amsterdam – Paris train attack in Oignies, Pas-De-Calais
• 13/11/2015 – Paris attacks

As a matter of fact, no other major terrorist attack took place in a NATO / EU country this year. Either both French intelligence services and internal security are laughable (imagine three major terrorist attacks in Washington or Moscow or Beijing within a year) or something else is at play.

The only difference France has compared to any NATO member (bar USA) is that it is the only country which has a truly autonomous defense industry. It is the only country which can design and produce a fighter plane (Dassault Aviation), its engine (Snecma), its avionics, its radar (Thales) and its munition from bullets to cruise missiles (MBDA) all by itself. Same goes for shipbuilding. And because they develop everything, they get all the maintenance / upgrade contracts.

On November 5th, this article appeared on Aviation Week: Rafale Fighters Make Inroads Against U.S. Makers – Dassault wagers prospective Rafale exports will justify tripling supplier output (http://aviationweek.com/defense/rafale-fighters-make-inroads-against-us-makers – requires account for free access).

So, the year Rafale got its first ever export contract since its introduction in 2001 France in general and Paris in particular are witnessing attack upon attack.

As I said, these are stray thoughts and probably mean nothing but I can’t help wonder why France.