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[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

Gene GeRue wrote:

> > I love pre-emptive strikes---those by the U.S. against a mortal threat.
>
>
> Iraq was not a mortal threat and the proof was the posture of her 
> neighbors.


tvoivozhd---yup, primarily Saudi Arabia cowering before Saddam and 
secretly advising us to stop Saddam, offering us the use of their 
airfields and staging areas toward that end.

> At one time, the Soviets were a mortal threat. They had devastating 
> stuff pointed at us needing only the double key-turn. What if we had 
> struck preemptively? Those of us who survived would be cutting logs 
> with stone tools.


tvoivozhd---through six or seven Democrat and Republican Presidents, the 
application of hard power and soft power , and Soviet over-expenditure 
on their military together wore them down..  After Stalin died, Soviet 
military decision was a collective, not individual action.  It its 
closing phase, Kennedy faced down Kruschev, but allowed him a 
face-saving exit.  Face-saving exits meant nothing to egomaniac Saddam.

> We could preemptively strike North Korea and Iran right now and 
> justify it as strongly as we did Iraq.


tvoivozhd---one at a time please, we don't have enough troops to handle 
Iraq.

> I fear the preemptive strike theory will cause us more long-term harm 
> than good.
>
> tvoivozhd---throughout our history we have been the subject of many 
> pre-emptive strikes---Bunker Hill, War of1812, Fort McHenry,  General 
> Roth or Ross with 15,000 well-trained, well-armed Redcoats attacking 
> Andrew Jackson's hastily thrown together, hastily-trained 4000 men in 
> New Orleans , Pearl Harbor, Twin Towers (hate that 9/ll term).  We 
> successfully employed some of our own, most  notably against the 
> Barbary Pirates, Benedict Arnold against  Fort Ticonderoga, George 
> Washington against Yorktown, (crucially aided by the DeGrasse French 
> fleet), the Omaha Beach invasion.


ALL military actions are pre-emptive strikes or defenses thereto.  I  
greatly prefer  to be on  the assault end of  a pre-emptive strike, 
particularly  when the surprise element is present.