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To: alnitak

LEHRER: New question. Two minutes, Senator Kerry.

What is your position on the whole concept of preemptive war?

KERRY: The president always has the right, and always has had the right, for preemptive strike. That was a great doctrine throughout the Cold War. And it was always one of the things we argued about with respect to arms control.

No president, though all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America.

But if and when you do it, Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.


21 posted on 10/01/2004 11:48:25 AM PDT by WildTurkey
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To: WildTurkey

Hmm....definitely sounds a bit waffly, but hardly enough to torpedo his campaign. IIRC, the doctrine in the Cold War was "no first use".


25 posted on 10/01/2004 11:50:37 AM PDT by alnitak ("That kid's about as sharp as a pound of wet liver" - Foghorn Leghorn)
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