Wednesday, January 17, 2007

The past will help the future

In judging from some of the recent postings from the left end of the blog world, there seems to be a bit of a dust up over the rationale for going to war. In reviewing the issue, it seems interesting that the notion of preemptive war, or the Bush Doctrine, has completely disappeared from the political discourse. Four years ago, the Bush Doctrine was touted as the new world order and now it has the same relevance as this little gem. Nevertheless, it is necessary to realize just how disastrous the doctrine and rationale for war was(is).
Preventive war is based on the idea that an enemy (presumably) is preparing to do something that will one day threaten you and it is in your best interest to stop them before they achieve that goal. It requires a kind of intelligence that is so amazingly sensitive and prescient that we can see threats before they even emerge.*

This omniscience was what the Bush administration sold going into Iraq ---- that we knew that Saddam was developing weapons that one day would threaten us. That, needless to say, was not true and we can hope that the Bush Doctrine is dead because of it.

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