The Faithful Skeptic

Neocons Gone Wild: The Bush Doctrine

The debate between Bush and Kerry over the question of whether the war in Iraq was justified is getting a lot of attention lately. I'm not particularly interested in their debate - neither of them is probably very interested in the truth.

As I understand it, Bush's justification for the war at this point is that Iraq and specifically Saddam Hussein could have been a threat at some point in the future. Bush's own people (the CIA, Pentagon, State Department, etc.) admit that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. I think Bush's exact words were that Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction related program activities."

So at this point the Bush Doctrine of Preemptive War can be invoked against nations or terrorist organizations under these conditions:
1.) Any country or terrorist organization that is threatening the United States or its allies; and 2.) Any country that may at some point in the future threaten the United States or its allies.

The other argument I hear is that Iraq under Hussein was an awful place to live (particularly in terms of human rights) and that the quality of life for most Iraqis has improved or will improve with Hussein out of the picture. That may well be true, but that seems to me to be a dangerous extension of the Bush Doctrine.

So here's the final Bush Doctrine as I understand it:

The United States may unilaterally attack:
1.) Any country or terrorist organization that is threatening the United States or its allies;
2.) Any country that may at some point in the future threaten the United States or its allies;
3.) Any country whose human rights' conditions do not meet the standards of the sitting US President.

So in order to help out President Bush, here's a place to start working on #3.

Amnesty International 2004 Human Rights Report Areas of Concern - Full Country List

If that list is too long for any of you hawks to bite off at once, Amnesty has conveniently summarized the list by region.

Africa
Americas
Asia Pacific
Europe and Central Asia
Middle East and North Africa

We're going to be very, very busy. Better ratchet up that draft...

This is not to say that I necessarily endorse Kerry's position. I don't know what his position is. I'd like to see a more coherent statement come out of that campaign.

posted by Brian @ 4:19 PM