9/18/2002

On September 18, 2002, “Bill Murray, the CIA station chief in Paris, met with his secret source, [a] Lebanese journalist. …The WMD situation in Iraq, the journalist said, was complicated but quite different than the White House was saying. Saddam’s chemical weapons arsenal was all gone. …Saddam didn’t want responsibility for them anymore. …The supposed […]

Read More… from 9/18/2002

9/17/2002

From the National Security Strategy of September 17, 2002: “America is now threatened less by conquering states than we are by failing ones. We are menaced less by fleets and armies than by catastrophic technologies in the hands of the embittered few. We must defeat these threats to our Nation, allies, and friends.”  – The National […]

Read More… from 9/17/2002

9/17/2002

“The locus classicus of the Bush administration’s beliefs about the War on Terror is the ‘National Security Strategy of the United States,’ a thirty-five page white paper issued by the White House in September [17] 2002. In florid rhetoric it depicts the United States as having entered a new era of epochal conflict, challenged again […]

Read More… from 9/17/2002

9/17/2002

On September 17, 2002, “the Bush administration released a new ‘National Security Strategy,’ which called for preemptive action against hostile countries and terrorist groups. ‘[The United States] will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defense by acting preemptively,’ the document stated.”  – Ricardo S. Sanchez with Donald T. Phillips, […]

Read More… from 9/17/2002

9/17/2002

“The [Bush] administration’s emerging policy of preemption achieved formal status when it was included in the National Security Strategy published on September 17, 2002. …Never before…had any president set out a formal national strategy doctrine that included preemption.”  – Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone, Pages 141-142 […]

Read More… from 9/17/2002

9/17/2002

“Outlining the post-9/11 international situation, the [September 17] 2002 NSS [National Security Strategy] equated terrorists with tyrants as sources of danger. It argued that given these dangers, the Cold War strategies of containment and deterrence were obsolete, overtaken by events. The White House said, ‘Given the goals of rogue states and terrorists the United States […]

Read More… from 9/17/2002

9/17/2002

Regarding the Bush Administration’s National Security Strategy, published on September 17, 2002: “To the strategies of containment and deterrence the administration added preemption. It announced: ‘Traditional concepts of deterrence will not work against a terrorist enemy whose avowed tactics are wanton destruction and the targeting of innocents; whose so-called soldiers seek martyrdom in death and […]

Read More… from 9/17/2002

9/17/2002

The Bush Administration’s National Security Strategy, published on September 17, 2002, “outlined how America would retain its preeminent position: ‘[O]ur forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States.’ ”  – Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone, […]

Read More… from 9/17/2002

9/17/2002

President Bush released his National Security Strategy on September 17, 2002. “The document came to be known as the Bush doctrine. In essence, the foreign policy of George W. Bush had three main elements. First, the United States claimed the right to take unilateral military action to preempt any perceived threat to its security. Second, […]

Read More… from 9/17/2002

9/17/2002

The Bush Administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) of September 17, 2002, said: ” ‘we must be prepared to stop rogue states and their terrorist clients before they are able to threaten or use weapons of mass destruction against the United States and our allies and friends.’ The NSS states preventative force is imperative because fanatical […]

Read More… from 9/17/2002