We'll strike first, US warns

2006-03-16 22:53

Washington - Making no apologies for the war in Iraq, the United States reaffirmed its strike-first policy of pre-emption on Thursday, and warned that Iran might pose the biggest threat to US national security.

"We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran," the White House said in a 49-page blueprint called "The National Security Strategy of the United States of America."

The report drew up a balance sheet of what it called President George W Bush's foreign policy successes and remaining "challenges".

The latter included bloody violence in Iraq and tense stand-offs on nuclear programmes in Iran and North Korea.

It also warned Russia that its ties with the West depended on democratic reforms, and urged China to embrace greater political freedom.

Washington would "hedge" for the possibility that this did not happen.

The report pleaded for patience with what has so far been a mostly fruitless policy towards ending what it again referred to as "genocide" in Sudan's troubled region of Darfur.

No direct reference to UN action

The blueprint made no direct reference to possible United Nations security council action to punish Iran for refusing to freeze sensitive aspects of its nuclear programme, which Washington said hid an atomic weapons project.

Instead, it referred to US-backed diplomacy by Britain, France and Germany, as well as efforts by Russia, and cautioned that "this diplomatic effort must succeed if confrontation is to be avoided".

Bush has said he hopes for a diplomatic solution to the North Korean and Iranian crises, while refusing to rule out military options.

The document made it clear Washington did not view the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction (WMD), which were at the core of its public case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as a blow against its strategy of preventive war.

Pre-emption stays the same

That strategy was fleshed out in the 2002 version of the document, which built on Bush's position that the September 11 2001 terrorist strikes made Cold War deterrence obsolete and required bolder action.

"The place of pre-emption in our national security strategy remains the same," the White House said on Thursday.

"We do not rule out the use of force before attacks occur."

- SAPA