Posted on 06/10/2002 7:30:57 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Bush: U.S. Must Strike Terror First
By SONYA ROSS
Associated Press Writer
Posted June 10 2002, 8:05 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- President Bush made a case Monday for pre-emptive strikes against terrorists that seek weapons of mass destruction for use against the United States and other nations, saying "we will oppose the new totalitarians with all our power."
"With the spread of chemical and biological and nuclear weapons, along with ballistic missile technology, freedom's enemies could attain catastrophic power," Bush told a group of about 100 world conservatives gathered for a White House dinner.
"And there's no doubt that they would use that power to attack us. ... We will oppose the new totalitarians with all our power."
In an earlier speech before the group, the International Democrat Union, Vice President Dick Cheney said the United States will not shy away from first strikes when it acts against terrorists.
Cheney said a strike-first military policy is necessary because past approaches to world security -- Cold War deterrence, summit meetings and treaties -- will not work against terrorists who have no single base of operation and "nothing to defend."
"Grave threats are accumulating against us, and inaction will only bring them closer," Cheney said. "We will not wait until it is too late."
The IDU, a collection of conservative and moderate-to-right politicians, responded favorably to the anti-terror coalition Bush has assembled. The group issued a statement supporting the president's approach on expanding the anti-terror fight and denying dangerous weapons to "terrorists and hostile states."
"We believe the coalition must be bold, not complacent, in addressing these threats," the statement read. "The nature of this threat and the risks of doing nothing to combat it must be clearly understood. We support fully the policy that this threat must be defeated."
Bush plans to formalize the "strike first" military policy when he submits his first national security strategy to Congress by early fall.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Monday that the document would incorporate various foreign relations and national security policies that Bush has articulated since Sept. 11, including new demands that poor countries make political and economic reforms in order to receive U.S. aid.
Cheney did not refer to Bush's pending written policy, but emphasized that the United States has a special responsibility to initiate military action if it will thwart grand-scale terrorist plots before they happen.
"The nature and scale of the challenge we face became apparent last year on the morning of Sept. 11," Cheney said. "It is now clear that every aspiration we have for the countries we serve -- our prosperity, our security and the peace of the world -- all depend upon our answer to that threat of global terror."
Specifically, he said, Iraq poses a threat because its leader, Saddam Hussein, has shown a willingness to use weapons of mass destruction, and because there is potential for Saddam's government to link up with terrorist networks.
"Containment is not possible when unbalanced dictators with weapons of mass destruction can deliver those weapons on missiles, or secretly provide them to their terrorist allies," Cheney said. "We have a responsibility to protect ourselves against future attack, to prepare our military for all future threats, to maintain the global coalition we have built to defeat global terror, and to take pre-emptive action when necessary."
Such a pre-emptive stance is a departure from the decades-old Cold War policies built around the theory that an enemy would not attack the United States because such an attack would mean a certain and devastating retaliatory strike.
"A group like al-Qaida cannot be deterred or placated or reasoned with at a conference table," Cheney said. "For that reason, this struggle will not end with a treaty or accommodation of terrorists. It can only end in their complete and utter destruction."
Bush articulated his "strike first" doctrine in a June 1 commencement address at West Point, where he vowed to "take the battle to the enemy, disrupt its plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge."
The IDU is comprised of representatives from more than 60 countries and 80 political parties. It was formed in 1983 by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, then-Vice President George Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Republican National Committee spokesman Jim Dyke said the group focuses on exchanging ideas that forward conservative politics.
"It's a chance for like-minded, center-right parties to share their experiences in order to achieve electoral success," he said.'
Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press
I don't know a lot about Saddam, but I wonder about all of this. For one, he isn't a muslim is he? Iraq isn't a muslim regime. Are they really linked to all this stuff going on? It seems to me just as a casual newsreader that the Saudi connection is much clearer and stronger than any "potential" Iraqi connection. And yet, we go along with the Saudis.
No need to give the entire state to Israel. We could just give them 150 miles of the Central California coast starting north of Vandenberg AFB. Only problem is, do the Americans living there want to live in the middle of a Jewish state? You know sometimes I seriously think it might make sense to move Israel rather than have all this continued bloodshed. That would amount to appeasement of terrorists, but you have to wonder where the current situation is leading.
defenderSD,
Newport Beach, CA
In reality we only import about 25% of our oil from the Middle East. We could easily cover that with our own known reserves if the price of oil were high enough to make domestic drilling profitable. We could also exploit Russian fields and even African reserves. The real dependency on Middle Eastern oil is Japan and some European countries. That is why it is so funny when people accuse the Bush family of being soft on the Saudis because of oil. The fact is that the Bush family’s real ties are to the independent Texas producers and drillers because that is how the Bush family amassed their “oil“ fortunes. The very ones that would profit the most from 50 dollar a barrel oil.
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Hmmm, da ya think Bush (POTUS) knows something you (casual newsreader) don't?
I have not ruled out that possibility :-)
Yes, a great idea.
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