THE BEST DEFENSE . . .
NEW YORK POST
Editorial
March 17, 2006
Though it will set his critics to howling in protest, President Bush yesterday reiterated his determination to employ pre-emptive military action against rogue regimes armed with weapons of mass destruction.
Frankly, to do otherwise - despite the ongoing difficulties in Iraq - would have been a surrender to the same type of post-Vietnam syndrome that crippled U.S. strategic thinking for decades.
Which is why it is significant that the report was released even as U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a major strike - Operation Swarmer - against terrorist targets in Iraq.
The president made his determination in a formal 49-page report to Congress detailing America's strategic priorities. And, while it deals with many global issues, it is the reaffirmation of pre-emptive war that will attract the most attention.
"We do not rule out use of force before attacks occur,
even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of
the enemy's attack," the report declares. "When the
consequences of an attack with WMD are potentially so
devastating, we cannot afford to stand idly by."
Or to wait for the rest of the world to summon the courage to face up to a common threat.
Likewise, the president spelled out that the core foundation of his foreign policy is
"to seek and support democratic movements and
institutions in every nation and culture, with the
ultimate goal of ending tyranny in the world."
An admirable goal, that. Yet Bush also made clear that however idealistic the ambition, he remains "realistic about [the] means" to realize it.
In other words, as National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said, "We've learned something over the past four years" - since the National Security Strategy was last submitted to Congress. Such as that democratic elections, while "the most visible sign of a free society," are not in themselves sufficient.
As the recent Hamas victory in the Palestinian Authority made clear, elections "must be reinforced by other values, rights and institutions to bring about lasting freedom."
And the report also reinforces the need for multilateral alliances - though it deems more effective the kind of "coalition of the willing" that took shape on Iraq over more formal structures like NATO or the United Nations.
The bottom line is that America - a nation that, as the president reminds us, is "still at war" - must have the right to take unilateral action to protect itself.
Sometimes, as in Iraq, that means making hard decisions - given that "there will always be some uncertainty about the status of hidden [WMD] programs."
Still, the report declares, "the world is better off if tyrants know that they pursue WMD at their own peril."
Which is why this president and his advisors understood that the War on Terror had to involve more than simply paying back al Qaeda for 9/11.
"We fight our enemies abroad instead of waiting for them
to arrive in our country," said Bush. "We seek to shape
the world, not merely be shaped by it."
The Bush administration has once again set forth a bold and visionary program for aggressively protecting Americans while simultaneously asserting this nation's ability and responsibility to change the world for the better.
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