Chirac's intended audience was the Iranians. To turn this into an anti-American warning is insane.
Its not an anti-american signal (it wouldn't be taken any more seriously than if timbucktoo's dictator waved his arms shouting "death to America!").
Its intended to show a variety of folks that France has nukes and that despite underfunding (nay, starving)their military capabilities for 60 yrs now, Europe still has some muscle that counts etc.
Indeed. What kind of nutcase would think that the French telling everybody that they'd be first in line to nuke WMD terrorists (without asking the UN first - like they expect everybody else to), would be a problem for us? We'd be happy to hold their coat (or white flag) while they do so.
I think we'd say "Good friggin' morning, froggie. But don't just talk the talk. And don't think you're the only one that has that perogative."