Pre-emptive self-defense?

[Sandia]

"[A] strategic doctrine, if it is to be valid... must be reciprocal...

The doctrine of pre-emptive self-defense, which is the right of one country to attack an adversary based on a subjective evaluation of capability and intent, fails this test. We, in the US, cannot admit that it imparts an equal right to Iraq...

Put another way, the doctrine of pre-emptive self-defense appears logically to imply another, subsidiary doctrine -- that of a Chosen People..." James Galbraith.


Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin: "Over-reliance on packing the biggest gun or having the fastest draw does not make us safer; rather, it is a formula for international anarchy."


Yesterday on Fresh Air, they interviewed the former head of the Counter-Terrorism agency under Clinton. Among other things, he said there was enormous pressure on people in the intelligence community to conform to Bush's agenda on Iraq.

In today's newspaper:

"A letter from CIA Director George Tenet to Congress has brought into public view divisions... about what intelligence shows about Iraq's intentions...

The agency argued that Iraq would refrain from sponsoring terrorists attacks for the foreseeable future if the US did not attack..."

Michael Gordon
The New York Times.

 

[SINthysist]

In tactics (as per Musashi) there are the three strategies.

Attack.
Sense attack, attack. (Forestall)
Sense attack, retreat attack.

Saddam is at war with us as are the other loosely related, “We hate the West,” factions that make up the region. So far, all we have played in strategy three once, the rest of the time has been strategy two. We have left strategy one to them, but I will tell you this, if you cannot keep an enemy off-balance, you cannot defeat them, nor will you beat them playing defense. You must employ all three strategies to win. Just the threat of playing number one has put Saddam in serious jeopardy from internal forces and has caused former harborers to become somewhat more up front with us. They will become more forthright if they see we actually have the DETERMINATION to play number one…

Then you can go back and work two and three having kept the opponent “honest” in his tactics.

 

[SINthysist]

What doom and gloom forecasts do not measure is the levels of defections and the level of self-preservation in the Iraqi citizen, no different from our own.

The Iraqi commanders know they cannot stop the Americans better than anyone else and fear American retribution. When the orders come for scorched earth, Saddam will have great trouble enforcing compliance from miles beneath the earth.

 

[Sandia]

I wouldn't oppose using US forces in a joint effort to ensure Iraqi compliance with UN resolutions. Attacking pre-emptively, based on a manufactured threat, concerns me deeply. It launches America on a path toward Empire - that is destructive to our own interests, our principles, and to peaceful coexistence in the world at large.

 

[Sandia]

I had my most democratic moment ever today. I actually wrote Lloyd a letter. We'll see if he writes back.