Today,
Condoleezza Rice called Iran "the central banker of terrorism." Tomorrow, Stephen Hadley will give a speech and release a revised 49-page National Security Strategy, reaffirming the doctrine of preemptive war.
Hadley will give his speech - I kid you not - at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
From the Washington Post (tomorrow's edition):
In his revised version, Bush offers no second thoughts about the preemption policy, saying it "remains the same" and defending it as necessary for a country in the "early years of a long struggle" akin to the Cold War. In a nod to critics in Europe, the document places a greater emphasis on working with allies and declares diplomacy to be "our strong preference" in tackling the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
Ah, back to the good old days of the Cold War. McCarthyism. Bogeymen. Black lists.
Security experts interviewed by the Post are none too thrilled.
"Preemption is and always will be a potentially useful tool, but it's not something you want to trot out and throw in everybody's face," said Harlan Ullman, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "To have a strategy on preemption and make it central is a huge error."
But where would the Bush administration be without trotting threats out and throwing it in everybody's face? Hasn't that been the grand design of diplomacy for the past few years?
Just to clear up any confusion about what country or countries we're getting in the world's face about, the National Security Strategy report makes it clear:
Without saying what action would be taken against them, the strategy singles out seven nations as prime examples of "despotic systems" -- North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Belarus, Burma and Zimbabwe. Iran and North Korea receive special attention because of their nuclear programs, and the strategy vows in both cases "to take all necessary measures" to protect the United States against them.
...
"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."
We have all been here before .... We have all been here before .... Come to think of it, Bush has shown a partiality for spring invasions ....