US defense secretary expands pre-emptive war doctrine to include nuclear strikes

[OneBlueSky]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/oct2008/gate-o30.shtml

In a remarkable speech on nuclear policy delivered October 28 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), US Defense Secretary Robert Gates painted a dire portrait of international affairs and argued that Washington should expand the doctrine of pre-emptive war formulated by the Bush administration to include possible nuclear strikes.

It is widely rumored that, in the likely event that Democrat Barack Obama wins next week's US presidential election, Obama will keep Gates as defense secretary. Gates' speech, given in the waning days of the Bush presidency, has the character of a policy declaration of the next US administration. (my bold . . .)

Gates began by making extended and ominous parallels between the world situation today and that which prevailed at the founding of the Carnegie Institute in 1910, four years before the outbreak of World War I. At the time, he noted, Wall Street was passing through the panic of 1910-1911 and facing a credit crisis, the US had recently put down an insurgency in the Philippines at a cost of 4,200 American lives, comparable to today's US death toll in Iraq, and "Europe was arming itself to the teeth and forming a series of alliances whose implications were obvious to anyone who cared to look."

Gates argued that the pacifist illusions promoted by CEIP founder Andrew Carnegie—a US steel magnate at the turn of the 20th century, most famous in the working class movement for the brutal suppression of the 1892 Homestead strike against his company—— should not deter Washington from planning broader war.

-more . . .

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/oct2008/gate-o30.shtml

(hey . . . I just report 'em . . .)

[ixion]

1. so-called "pre-emptive war" (for Palin: the BUSH DOCTRINE) is nothing more than illegal invasion

and if we ever expect to regain international standing, we need to end the practice now, and send those who practiced it to stand trial before the ICC.

[malaise]

2. Bingo

100% correct.

[ixion]

13. thanks!

yeah, it really amazes me that the so-called "land of the free and the brave" can turn so quickly towards cowardly authoritarianism, and in fact pursues the exact same policies we initially fought against to gain that land in the first place.

[jaksavage]

3. No Nukes

[TahitiNut]

4. Hopefully, Obama will share at least some of the perspectives of Noam Chomsky.

Lord knows we need to elevate those perspectives.

[guyton]

5. war crime trials are needed soon!

This so called "doctrine of preemptive war" is nothing short of admitting to war crimes. We need to hold people accountable for this abomination (dems and repubs).

Btw, I read someplace long ago that Condi believed we should have nuked Russia preemptively during the cold war, but I can't find a reference to it anymore. Is it true?

[EFerrari]

6. I heard yesterday that Obama might keep Gates.

But, I decided to care about that next week. :)

[Iwasthere]

7. NEVER in the history of the USA have we attacked first

NEVER!!! Till B* He is very much a criminal.

[tama]

9. Mmm...?

Panama?
Grenada?
Bay of Pigs?
Vietnam?
...
...
...
Injuns?

[tama]

8. Tiny willy

BIG nukes.

Still teeny weeny willy. :)

[Octafish]

10. As long as the ''right'' people get nuked, WGAF?

Yeah. "Right." As in "Brown."

Gates is no different than HIS masters.

Know your BFEE: Robert Gates did more than keep the doors open at BCCI

What has happened to MY country? It was hijacked by WARMONGERS on November 22, 1963.

[Hydra]

11. "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength"

Nuking people leads to peace. Sounds about as sane as the rest of the stuff coming out of Washington lately.

[philly_bob]

12. Rumors: Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff, now Gates at Defense Sectry in new admin

Say it ain't so, somebody, just wild Beltway rumors...