Difference between revisions of "Preemptive war"

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'''Preemptive war''' has been defined as a "military action undertaken absent an imminent threat or ongoing attack by an aggressor ... a decision to go to war without clear and convincing evidence of the need for us to defend ourselves against an imminent attack."[http://www.natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives/020703/020703d.htm]
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[[Category:Nuclear PR]]
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'''Preemptive war''' is a unilateral "first strike", in the face of an imminent armed threat. This type of war may be sanctioned under international law, but requires the nature of the threat to be credible and significant.
  
'''Quotable Quotes'''
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==Definition==
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===''Wikipedia'' Definition===
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"A preemptive attack (or preemptive war) is waged in an attempt to repel or defeat an imminent offensive or invasion, or to gain a strategic advantage in an impending (usually unavoidable) war.
  
Preemptive war "punishes the defenseless not for what they have done or are doing but for what they might have done or could do."
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"Preemptive war is often confused with the term [[preventive war]]. While the latter is generally considered to violate international law, and to fall short of the requirements of a [[just war doctrine|just war]], preemptive wars are more often argued to be justified or justifiable.
-- [http://www.paxhumana.info/article.php3?id_article=280 Eduardo Galeano, PaxHumana, September 2003].
 
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"Described as "preventive defense" or "extended deterrence" by its supporters--but decried as "a new form of gunboat diplomacy" by its detractors--a new program called the "[http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/pdd18.htm Counterproliferation Initiative]" [Presidential Decision Directive PDD/NSC 18]
 
was unveiled in December 1993 by then-Defense Secretary [[Les Aspin]].
 
  
"There was considerable controversy over what "counterproliferation" meant. But it was widely interpreted as indicating that the United States--having recently demonstrated overwhelming military superiority in the Gulf War--would now flex its muscles even further, looking into the ways and means of preemptively striking regional troublemakers or would-be attackers.
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"The intention with a preemptive strike is to gain the advantage of initiative and to harm the enemy at a moment of minimal protection," particularly when the enemy is vulnerable. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preemptive_war]
  
"Although there was talk of building conventional weapons capable of destroying deeply buried targets like command centers (Aspin said both new strategies and new military capabilities were needed), the initiative envisioned the use of U.S. nuclear weapons to defeat chemical or biological weapons. The idea, simply, was to "locate, neutralize, or destroy" others' [[weapons of mass destruction]] before they could be used. For the first time, the United States openly added targets in the Third World to its nuclear-weapons targeting plan.  
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===Daniel Webster===
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In 1841, U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster "articulated a set of demanding criteria for acting with a 'necessity of self-defense'—in particular for a legitimate use of preemptive force. Preemption, Webster said, is justified only in response to an imminent threat; moreover, the force must be necessary for self-defense and can be deployed only after nonlethal measures and attempts to dissuade the adversary from acting had failed. Furthermore, a preemptive attack must be limited to dealing with the immediate threat and must discriminate between armed and unarmed, innocent and guilty." [http://www.bostonreview.net/BR28.1/crawford.html]
  
"Now [April 2001], after eight years of reality, the initiative has morphed into something much less than promised. Author Henry Sokolski describes the process.  
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===International Court of Justice===
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"The [[International Court of Justice]] (ICJ) spelled out exactly what no nation can legally do in light of its commitments to uphold the [[United Nations|U.N.]] Charter: 'Thus it would be illegal for a state to threaten force to secure territory from another State, or to cause it to follow or not follow certain political or economic paths'," according to Ann Fagan Ginger, Executive Director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute. [http://www.mcli.org/law/federal/war_is_preventive.html]
  
"The Fate of President [[Bill Clinton]]'s "Counterproliferation Initiative" was tethered to its strategic assumptions. '''An initial interest in devising plans for preemptive strikes against foreign proliferation activities simply ignored the American culture's bias against launching Pearl Harbor-like attacks. More important, the initiative at first presumed that some military-technical means could neutralize proliferation problems. And that, in fact, turned out to be inherently difficult, if not impossible.'''"
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===Anticipatory Self-Defense===
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"The prevailing view probably is that, one way or another, anticipatory self-defense is permissible but traditionally has required the existence of an imminent threat," writes Steven C. Walsh, research analyst at the [[Center for Defense Information]]. [http://www.cdi.org/news/law/preemptive-war.cfm]
  
[http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2001/ma01/ma01sokolski.html Source: Bulletin of Atomic Scientists], March/April 2001.
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==[[Justifications for the US-Iraq 2003 war: "preemption" or "preemptive war"]]==
-----
 
== Other Related SourceWatch Resources ==
 
  
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==Quotes==
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Preemptive war "punishes the defenseless not for what they have done or are doing but for what they might have done or could do."<br>&mdash;[http://www.paxhumana.info/article.php3?id_article=280 Eduardo Galeano, PaxHumana, September 2003].
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== Related SourceWatch Resources ==
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*[[Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002]]
 
*[[Bush doctrine]]
 
*[[Bush doctrine]]
*[[civil liberties]]
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*[[Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations]]
*[[clear and present danger]]
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*[[Eisenhower doctrine]]
*[[Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1996]]
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*[[Geneva Conventions]]
*[[Defense Science Board]]
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*[[nuclear weapons]]
*"[[forward strategy of freedom]]"
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*[[PDD-39]]
*[[Homeland defense]]
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*[[PDD-62]]
*[[Homeland security]]
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*[[Truman doctrine]]
*[[Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics]]
 
*[[Iraqi Civil Defense Corps]]
 
*[[National Security Strategy of September 2002]]
 
*[[National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction]]
 
*[[neoconservative]]
 
*[[Operation Iraqi Freedom]]
 
*[[Operation Iraqi Freedom II]]
 
*[[Patriot Act I]]
 
*[[peacekeeping]]
 
*[[Post-war Iraq/NATO]]
 
*[[Proactive Preemptive Operations Group]]
 
*[[Project for the New American Century]]
 
*[[Stanley Foundation's Independent Task Force on US Strategies for National Security]]
 
*[[Transitional Iraqi Government]]
 
*[[U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century / Hart-Rudman Commission]]
 
*[[war on freedom]]
 
*[[war on terrorism]]
 
*[[weapons of mass destruction]]
 
 
 
== External Links ==
 
 
 
'''Preemptive War Against Iraq'''
 
 
 
*Paul W. Schroeder, [http://www.amconmag.com/10_21/iraq.html Iraq: The Case Against Preemptive War. The administration's claim of a right to overthrow regimes it considers hostile is extraordinary - and one the world will soon find intolerable], ''The American Conservative'', no date.
 
*Alan Bock, [http://www.antiwar.com/bock/b091002.html Preventive or Preemptive War?], ''Eye on the Empire'', September 10, 2002.
 
*William Galston, [http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/17/galston-w.html Perils of Preemptive War. Why America's place in the world will shift -- for the worse -- if we attack Iraq], ''The American Prospect'', September 23, 2002.
 
*Stephen Murdock, [http://www.dcbar.org/for_lawyers/washington_lawyer/january_2003/war.cfm Preemptive War: Is It Legal?], ''DCBar'', January 2003.
 
*Todd Gitlin, [http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2003/02/ma_205_01.html America's Age of Empire: The Bush Doctrine], ''MotherJones'', January/February 2003.
 
*Michael E. Salla, [http://www.exopolitics.org/Study-Paper2.htm An Exopolitical Perspective on the Preemptive War against Iraq], ''Exopolitics'', February 3, 2003.
 
*Eliot Katz, [http://www.counterpunch.org/katz02282003.html To Declare Pre-emptive War is to Declare a Bankruptcy of the Imagination], ''CounterPunch'', February 28, 2003.
 
*Robert Schneer, [http://www.salon.com/opinion/scheer/2003/03/12/war_crimes/index_np.html Preemptive war crimes. Driven by a coterie of neoconservative ideologues -- and the accidental president in their sway -- we are hours away from becoming international outlaws], ''Salon.com'', March 12, 2003.
 
*Jeffrey Donovan,[http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/03/14032003174825.asp Iraq: 'Preemptive' Or Otherwise, U.S. Interventionism Has A Long History], ''Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty'', March 14, 2003.
 
*Steven R. Weisman, [http://www.iht.com/articles/90747.html Doctrine of preemptive war has its roots in early 1990s], ''International Herald Tribune'', March 24, 2003.
 
*Bob Zimmerman, [http://www.impeach-bush-now.org/Articles/CampaignMore/globalnightmare.htm The truth behind the American invasion of Iraq: The Bush administration's evolving global nightmare], ''impeach-bush-now.org'', April 7, 2003: "When did 'democracy' become an American export; a commodity installed wherever we see fit by means of overwhelming force?"
 
*[[Howard Dean]], [http://www.deanvolunteers.org/DeanVolunteers/press_view.asp?ID=740 Bush: It's Not Just His Doctrine That's Wrong], ''CommonDreams'', April 17, 2003.
 
*Joel S. Beinin, Ivan Eland, and Edward A. Olsen, [http://www.independent.org/tii/forums/030625ipfTrans.html Preemptive War Strategy: A New U.S. Empire?] (Transcript), [[Independent Institute]], June 25, 2003.
 
*Ulrich Arnswald, [http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/09/1639819.php Preventive War or Preemptive War], ''IndyMedia'', September 3, 2003.
 
*Stan Crock, [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=66&ncid=66&e=1&u=/bw/20031022/bs_bw/nf200310221599db056 Preemptive War Is the Wrong Weapon], ''BusinessWeek'' Online, October 22, 2003: "the electronic newsletter sent out by [[Chuck Spinney]], a retired Pentagon analyst ... starts out with a quote from the late journalist [[H. L. Mencken]]: '''"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."'''
 
*Jalal Ghazi, [http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17268 Wolfowitz Doctrine Sinks in the Iraqi Quagmire], Pacific News Service, November 25, 2003: "The pre-emption doctrine of Deputy Defense Secretary [[Paul Dundes Wolfowitz]] helped fuel the war in Iraq. Wolfowitz argued that the United States should 'shape,' not just react, to the world, acting alone when necessary and using its military and economic hegemony to foster American values and protect U.S. interests. But the outcome of the Iraq war has brought about the opposite: the quagmire has stymied aggressive U.S. unilateral action and forced Washington to work with European allies and even an old foe, Iran."
 
  
'''Future Preemptive Actions'''
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== External links ==
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*Paul W. Schroeder, [http://www.amconmag.com/10_21/iraq.html "Iraq: The Case Against Preemptive War. The administration’s claim of a right to overthrow regimes it considers hostile is extraordinary – and one the world will soon find intolerable,"] ''American Conservative Magazine'', undated.
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*Netta C. Crawford, [http://www.bostonreview.net/BR28.1/crawford.html "The Best Defense. The problem with Bush’s 'preemptive' war doctrine,"] ''Boston Review'', February/March 2003.
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*Dietrich Murswiek, [http://www.jura.uni-freiburg.de/institute/ioeffr3/forschung/papers/murswiek/PreemptiveWar.pdf "The American Strategy of Preemptive War and International Law,"] Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiberg Institute of Public Law, March 2003.
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*Ann Fagan Ginger, [http://www.mcli.org/law/federal/war_is_preventive.html "Preemptive War / Preventive War. Both Are Against The Law Of The United States,"] Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, undated [2004].
 +
*Steven Murdoch, [http://www.dcbar.org/for_lawyers/washington_lawyer/january_2003/war.cfm "Preemptive War: Is It Legal?,"] ''DCBar.org'', January 2003.
 +
*[http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20030415_segal.html "Pre-Crime? What the Film Minority Report Can Teach Us About the Three Key Rules of Preemptive War,"] ''FindLaw's Writ'', April 15, 2003.
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*Russell Madden, [http://216.109.117.135/search/cache?p=%22preemptive+war%22&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&pstart=1&b=91&u=freedom.orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/selfdefense_preempt.htm&w=%22preemptive+war%22&d=12914A2F40&icp=1&.intl=us "Self-Defense: Preemptive, Immediate, and Retaliatory"] (cache file), ''The Laissez Faire Electronic Times'', Vol 2, No 18, May 5, 2003.
 +
*Duncan E.J. Currie, [http://www.globelaw.com/Iraq/Preventive_war_after_iraq.htm "'Preventive War' and International Law After Iraq,"] May 22, 2003.
 +
*Steven C. Welsh, [http://www.cdi.org/news/law/preemptive-war.cfm "Preemptive War and International Law,"] Center for Defense Information, December 5, 2003.
 +
*Maggie Ledford Lawson,[http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives2/2004a/022704/022704p.php "The fatal legend of preemptive war. German history shows the perils of Washington's new strategy,"] ''National Catholic Reporter'', February 27, 2004.
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*John Hendren, [http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/intervention/2005/0319firststrike.htm "Policy OKs First Strike to Protect US,"] ''Los Angeles Times'', March 19, 2005: "Two years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon has formally included in key strategic plans provisions for launching preemptive strikes against nations thought to pose a threat to the United States. The doctrine also now stipulates that the U.S. will use 'active deterrence' in concert with its allies 'if we can' but could act unilaterally otherwise, Defense officials said."
  
*David Morgan, [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=14&u=/nm/20031205/ts_nm/iraq_usa_stabilization_dc Pentagon Weighs Contentious Peacekeeping Plans], Reuters, December 5, 2003.
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[[category:national security]]
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[[category:war in Iraq]][[category:Iraq]][[category:Globalization]]
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[[Category:Civil liberties (U.S.)]][[Category:Needs review]]

Latest revision as of 20:13, 21 June 2017

Preemptive war is a unilateral "first strike", in the face of an imminent armed threat. This type of war may be sanctioned under international law, but requires the nature of the threat to be credible and significant.

Definition

Wikipedia Definition

"A preemptive attack (or preemptive war) is waged in an attempt to repel or defeat an imminent offensive or invasion, or to gain a strategic advantage in an impending (usually unavoidable) war.

"Preemptive war is often confused with the term preventive war. While the latter is generally considered to violate international law, and to fall short of the requirements of a just war, preemptive wars are more often argued to be justified or justifiable.

"The intention with a preemptive strike is to gain the advantage of initiative and to harm the enemy at a moment of minimal protection," particularly when the enemy is vulnerable. [1]

Daniel Webster

In 1841, U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster "articulated a set of demanding criteria for acting with a 'necessity of self-defense'—in particular for a legitimate use of preemptive force. Preemption, Webster said, is justified only in response to an imminent threat; moreover, the force must be necessary for self-defense and can be deployed only after nonlethal measures and attempts to dissuade the adversary from acting had failed. Furthermore, a preemptive attack must be limited to dealing with the immediate threat and must discriminate between armed and unarmed, innocent and guilty." [2]

International Court of Justice

"The International Court of Justice (ICJ) spelled out exactly what no nation can legally do in light of its commitments to uphold the U.N. Charter: 'Thus it would be illegal for a state to threaten force to secure territory from another State, or to cause it to follow or not follow certain political or economic paths'," according to Ann Fagan Ginger, Executive Director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute. [3]

Anticipatory Self-Defense

"The prevailing view probably is that, one way or another, anticipatory self-defense is permissible but traditionally has required the existence of an imminent threat," writes Steven C. Walsh, research analyst at the Center for Defense Information. [4]

Justifications for the US-Iraq 2003 war: "preemption" or "preemptive war"

Quotes

Preemptive war "punishes the defenseless not for what they have done or are doing but for what they might have done or could do."
Eduardo Galeano, PaxHumana, September 2003.

Related SourceWatch Resources

External links