Thursday, March 16, 2006

More of Same

The regime is once again going to embark on a policy of performing the same acts in the expectation of different results. It has finally released its national security policy (required by law and grossly over-due) and the general assessment is "more of same." Peter Baker has an article in the Washington Post which summarizes the major thrust of the report.

President Bush plans to issue a new national security strategy today reaffirming his doctrine of preemptive war against terrorists and hostile states with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, despite the troubled experience in Iraq.

The long-overdue document, an articulation of U.S. strategic priorities that is required by law, lays out a robust view of America's power and an assertive view of its responsibility to bring change around the world.

The strategy expands on the original security framework developed by the Bush administration in September 2002, before the invasion of Iraq. That strategy shifted U.S. foreign policy away from decades of deterrence and containment toward a more aggressive stance of attacking enemies before they attack the United States.
[Emphasis added]

What is so amazing about the report is that it was written in the midst of budget deficits as far as the eye can see (with a vote being scheduled to raise the debt ceiling of $8+ trillion) caused in large part by the billions poured into the Pentagon to fight the war in Iraq, a war now complicated by the threat of civil war; at a time when the military is stretched so thin that many believe it is effectively broken; and while support for the war in Iraq is dropping precipitously. One wonders if the Emperor and his minions are suffering from delusions of competence.

The most chilling part of the report, however, affirms the thesis of the entire report:

"We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran," the document says, echoing a statement made by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week. It recommits to efforts with European allies to pressure Tehran to give up any aspirations of nuclear weapons, then adds ominously: "This diplomatic effort must succeed if confrontation is to be avoided." [Emphasis added]

Here we go again.

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