What is the Bush Doctrine and why should I care?

me ^ | today | rebelbase

[Rebelbase]

There's been some flap from FReeps on one of the Charlie Gibson Interview threads that Palin goofed on not knowing what the Bush Doctrine was. What the heck does that have to do with shooting moose?

Really is this a media created buzz word? Do they teach it in War College? Is it that important to know? Does it matter?

[GRRRRR]

It’s real simple...

Kill the terrorists before they kill us...do not wait until AFTER they blow us up..

I’m for it.

[Gator_that_eats_Dems]

No offense, but this shows that she IS a maverick, and not in lock step with Bush.

[goldstategop]

The Bush Doctrine says two things: we're not going to let the world's most evil regimes acquire weapons of mass destruction and we're to take them out before they can use such weapons against us. Simple and straight!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[txroadkill]

It's a media created term, basically it means Preemptive strikes.

[mass55th]

Wasn’t the term “Bush Doctrine” created by the media?

[Azzurri]

It was attempted to be a trick question. Ask a liberal and they will tell you the Bush Doctrine is displaying the arrogance to invade a “sovereign” country at our own will. Ask a conservative, and the Bush Doctrine is to go anywhere to hunt down and kill those that threaten our freedom and liberty. She answered it fairly well, and refused to be drawn into any pre-conceived definition on the part of the questioner.

[Boardwalk]

The Bush Doctrine says two things: we’re not going to let the world’s most evil regimes acquire weapons of mass destruction and we’re to take them out before they can use such weapons against us.

Something Sarah fully intends to do she doesn’t need any doctrine.

[Loyal Buckeye]

FWIW, here is what ABC includes in its summary of the interview:

Palin agreed in principle to the "Bush doctrine," the idea that the United States has the right to preemptively strike those (sic) another country the U.S. think will attack first.

[Diogenesis]

The best Doctrine was INFINITE JUSTICE.

That changed.

President George W. Bush (2001):
“You’re either on our side or the terrorists’ side”.

---

"Any person, organization, or government that supports, protects or harbours terrorists
is complicit in the murder of the innocent, and equally guilty of terrorist crimes."
Pres. George W. Bush, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003.

---

Fast forward (2007)

Abu Abdullah of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades of Hamas' military wing (Gaza, June 20, 2007).
"We have no worries about running out of weapons or ammunition
thanks to your (stupid, corrupt, terrorist-supporting) American government."

---

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to (have their citizens suffer and) repeat it."
George Santayana

---

[Fred]

So what was the Clinton doctrine when bubba committed the whole world to fight in Kosovo???

[mrsmith]

It’s a 200 year old American policy:
“In 1818 General Andrew Jackson was sent to patrol the border with 800 regular troops and an additional 900 Georgia volunteers. Jackson wasted no time in asserting his authority. Seminole villages were burned to the ground. The Seminoles were chased all the way to West Florida, territory under Spanish control. Jackson took control of Seminole Forts as he went, inflicting punishment upon British and Spanish traders who had aided the Seminoles.
“
http://www.essortment.com/all/seminoleflorida_rfad.htm

[Bryan24]

Here’s why you don’t answer the question, or even acknowledge what it is... from Wikipedia

The Bush Doctrine is a phrase used to describe various related foreign policy principles of United States president George W. Bush, created in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The phrase initially described the policy that the United States had the right to treat countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups as terrorists themselves, which was used to justify the invasion of Afghanistan.[1] Later it came to include additional elements, including the controversial policy of preventive war, which held that the United States should depose foreign regimes that represented a threat to the security of the United States, even if that threat was not immediate (used to justify the invasion of Iraq), a policy of supporting democracy around the world, especially in the Middle East, as a strategy for combating the spread of terrorism, and a willingness to pursue U.S. military interests in a unilateral way.[2][3][4] Some of these policies were codified in a National Security Council text entitled the National Security Strategy of the United States published on September 20, 2002.[5]

So Freepers, what did YOU think it was? Was it the same as this?

[Future Snake Eater]

I assume it’s “You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

[mrsmith]

“...it will be a subject for consideration whether, on satisfactory evidence that any tribe means to strike us, we shall not anticipate by giving them the first blow... “ Pres. Jefferson to Sec. of War Dearborn August 28, 1807

How our Founders settled upon the name “Bush Doctrine” I have no idea...

[stockpirate]

Bush doc =

a. kill all terrorists
b. Kill ALL terrorists

[snarkytart]

Exactly..she was asked to answer a question about a media created term to vilify Bush’s foreign policy.

Talk about a trap.

[wideawake]

"Bush Doctrine" is an empty phrase that means whatever the user wants it to mean in context.

It is not a universally recognized term with a clear, delimited definition.

Palin has every right to refuse to go along with Charlie Gibson's own idiosyncratic labels for policies.

[Josh Painter]

The Bush Doctrine can vbe boiled down to three principles:

1. US has the right to treat countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups as terrorists themselves (basis we went into Afghanistan on)

2. US should depose foreign regimes that represent a threat to the security of the US, even if that threat is not immediate (basis we went into Iraq on)

3. US supports democracy around the world, especially in the Middle East, as a strategy for combating the spread of terrorism and to pursue U.S. military interests.

She asked him “in what way?” to make him specifically tell her which principle he was asking her about. If she would have answered by dicusssing only one principle, he would have come back and cited one of the others, thereby having his “gotcha” moment.

I think she avoided the “gotcha” by forcing him to be specific with his question. Pretty shrewd, IMO.

[FrdmLvr]

As far as I’m concerned, Charlie may have thought he tripped Sarah up on her lack of knowledge of the Bush Doctrine, but that only proved to point up that the McCain and Palin administration will not be a Bush 3rd term.