Bush: U.S. strikes first from now on
President Bush met with members of Congress this week to lobby for his Iraq
policy.
Sept. 20 — The new doctrine closes the door on almost six decades of Cold
War philosophy. NBC's Campbell Brown reports.
NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 — Discarding fundamental principles that
dominated U.S. foreign policy for more than half a century, President Bush
declared a new military doctrine Friday that shifts the focus of national
security from Cold War-era strategies of deterrence and retaliation to an
aggressive pre-emptive stance that seeks to strike against “emerging threats
before they are fully formed.”
“GIVEN THE GOALS of rogue states and terrorists, the United States
can no longer solely rely on a reactive posture as we have in the past. ...
We cannot let our enemies strike first,” Bush wrote in the document
submitted to Congress as required annually by law.
“As a matter of common sense and self-defense, America will act
against such emerging threats before they are fully formed,” he said.
The 35-page document, titled “The National Security Strategy of the
United States of America,” completes a transformation in fundamental U.S.
military doctrine that Bush first outlined in a landmark speech in June at
the U.S. Military Academy.
The report portrays Washington’s great Cold War adversaries, Russia
and China, as diminished threats, replaced in the modern world by terrorists
intent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
“The gravest danger our nation faces lies at the crossroads of
radicalism and technology,” the report said. “As a matter of common sense
and self-defense, America will act against such emerging threats before they
are fully formed.”
The report cast the United States as caught up in a battle within the
Muslim world. The United States has blamed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on
the al-Qaida network of Islamist militant Osama bin Laden and has said
extremists have “hijacked” Islam.
“The war on terrorism is not a clash of civilizations. It does,
however, reveal the clash inside a civilization, a battle for the future of
the Muslim world. This is a struggle of ideas and this is an area where
America must excel,” the document said.
It vowed to defeat terrorists “by identifying and destroying the
threat before it reaches our borders,” saying the United States would work
with allies to smash terrorist networks and punish states that harbored them
but would not hesitate to act alone “when our interests and unique
responsibilities require.”
U.S. officials denied that the strategy asserted U.S. unilateralism,
pointing to passages in the report that commit Washington to promoting
democracy, economic openness and human dignity.
“In keeping with our heritage and principles, we do not use our
strength to press for unilateral advantage,” it said. “We seek instead to
create a balance of power that favors human freedom. ... We will preserve
the peace by building good relations among the great powers.”
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer predicted that “when
countries see the values expressed in that document, the way America has
helped the world to enjoy more freedom and democracy and prosperity, they’ll
recognize that America uses its strength for the purpose of pursing peace
and spreading opportunity around the world.”
Read the document (PDF format)
MILITARY SUPREMACY PARAMOUNT
The document proclaimed that “the United States enjoys a position of
unparalleled military strength and great economic and political influence”
and said it was imperative to maintain that dominance. “Our forces will be
strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military
buildup in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United
States,” it said.
In particular, it cautioned China against a military expansion. “In
pursuing advanced military capabilities that can threaten its neighbors in
the Asia-Pacific region, China is following an outdated path that, in the
end, will hamper its own pursuit of national greatness,” it said.
But the Chinese threat is different from the Cold War-era specter of
nuclear annihilation that hung over the world for more than 50 years, the
report said. Since the collapse of Soviet communism, policies of deterrence
and containment have less significance in the battle against terrorism, it
said.
“Enemies in the past needed great armies and great industrial
capabilities to endanger America. Now, shadowy networks of individuals can
bring great chaos and suffering to our shores for less than it costs to
purchase a single tank. ...
“Traditional concepts of deterrence will not work against a
terrorist enemy whose avowed tactics are wanton destruction and targeting of
innocents,” the report said. “The overlap between states that sponsor terror
and those that pursue [weapons of mass destruction] compel us to action.”
‘NO OTHER OPTIONS’
U.S. officials said that the case against Iraq was unique and that
there was only a “narrow band” of problems in which the doctrine of
pre-emption would apply.
Bush has referred to North Korea, Iran and Iraq as members of an
“axis of evil, but a senior official told Reuters that North Korea, for
example, was involved in diplomatic efforts that distinguished it from Iraq.
Still, the official did not rule out use of pre-emptive strikes in
other situations. “There will be cases where you have no other options,” the
official said.
The document makes that policy clear, even if means taking action
against hostile forces when multinational groups like the United Nations
balk.
“While the United States will constantly strive to enlist the support
of the international community, we will not hesitate to act alone, if
necessary, to exercise our right of self-defense by acting pre-emptively
against such terrorists to prevent them from doing harm against our people
and our country,” it said.
MSNBC.com’s Alex Johnson, NBC’s Campbell Brown, The Associated Press
and Reuters contributed to this report.
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