[GretchenEE]

A serious photo for a serious subject, weapons of mass destruction

QUOTE OF THE DAY: The greatest threat before humanity today is the possibility of secret and sudden attack with chemical or biological or radiological or nuclear weapons. ...

In the past, enemies of America required massed armies, and great navies, powerful air forces to put our nation, our people, our friends and allies at risk. In the Cold War, Americans lived under the threat of weapons of mass destruction, but believed that deterrents made those weapons a last resort. What has changed in the 21st century is that, in the hands of terrorists, weapons of mass destruction would be a first resort. ...

America, and the entire civilized world, will face this threat for decades to come. We must confront the danger with open eyes, and unbending purpose. I have made clear to all the policy of this nation: America will not permit terrorists and dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most deadly weapons.

America faces the possibility of catastrophic attack from ballistic missiles armed with weapons of mass destruction. So that is why we are developing and deploying missile defenses to guard our people. The best intelligence is necessary to win the war on terror and to stop proliferation. So that is why I have established a commission that will examine our intelligence capabilities and recommend ways to improve and adapt them to detect new and emerging threats.

We're determined to confront those threats at the source. We will stop these weapons from being acquired or built. We'll block them from being transferred. We'll prevent them from ever being used.

[He addressed Iran and North Korea's truculence on the subject, and our efforts to overcome it; also, the black market operatives in WMD technology / sales, honoring the British intelligence service and other governments that worked with our own, for success against the likes of A.Q. Khan of Pakistan. He further outlined some intercepts of threatening materials, such as the BBC China, a German-owned ship transporting centrifuge parts, stopped by German and Italian authorities.]

Breaking this network is one major success in a broad-based effort to stop the spread of terrible weapons. We're adjusting our strategies to the threats of a new era. America and the nations of Australia, France and Germany, Italy and Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom have launched the Proliferation Security Initiative to interdict lethal materials in transit.

Our nations are sharing intelligence information, tracking suspect international cargo, conducting joint military exercises. We're prepared to search planes and ships, to seize weapons and missiles and equipment that raise proliferation concerns ... Three more governments -- Canada and Singapore and Norway -- will be participating in this initiative. We'll continue to expand the core group of PSI countries.

Today, I announce seven proposals to strengthen the world's efforts to stop the spread of deadly weapons. (See link for specifics: Bush Proposes New Measures To Counter Terrorism.

We will proceed as if the lives of our citizens depend on our vigilance, because they do. Terrorists and terror states are in a race for weapons of mass murder, a race they must lose. Terrorists are resourceful; we're more resourceful. They're determined; we must be more determined. We will never lose focus or resolve. We'll be unrelenting in the defense of free nations, and rise to the hard demands of dangerous times.

[lawgirl]

Howdy!

[GretchenEE]

1. Dose going up.

2. Please wait to posto photos till the "all clear" is sounded. Thanks!

3. We're doing an update to the ping list for this daily thread.

If you would like to be ON or OFF this list, please send me (GretchenEE) a FREEPMAIL rather than posting this to the thread.

(If you're ON the list and want to stay ON, we'll keep you ON, you don't need to send a request.)

[kitkat]

Thanks, Gretchen.

[Fawnn]

Here!!! (Thanks, GretchenEE.)

[Samwise]

I'm just about ready to turn off the TV, radio, and PC until after the election. The nonstop bashing of a truly decent human being and a fine leader are bad for my blood pressure and my stomach.

Thanks for the warm, comfortable room where the conversation is pleasant.

[Texagirl4W]

Early today, thanks. I love the blue background.

[pax_et_bonum]

I love that man!

[My2Cents]

From the speech --

"America and the nations of Australia, France and Germany, Italy and Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom have launched the Proliferation Security Initiative to interdict lethal materials in transit...."

More evidence of unilateralism. When will it end?

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

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[Inspectorette]

Is the Daytona 500 THIS Sunday? Hubby has been moping because he thinks he has to wait until Feb. 22.

[solo gringo]

Thank you President Bush for your leadership in these troubled times.We will get off our butts and make sure you lead our country for another four years.

[Peach]

Thanks for the ping and pictures, Gretchen.

The leftist attacks on this fine man is almost making me physically ill. However, I will redouble my efforts to exercise, eat well, pray hard and visit inspiring FR sites in order to be strong for the election cycle ahead.

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Thanks for the Dose tonight Gretchen...
beautiful pictures..well done!
Ms.B

[radiohead]

If I may indulge in a bit o'vanity - I passed my comprehensive exam this morning.

As part of the process, I had 2 weeks to write a comprehensive paper on 2 core areas (human information behavior and information management) and apply it to a 3rd area of interest. My committee reviewed my almost 70 page paper for 2 weeks, and today I presented for 2 hours while being questioned by my committee and an outside faculty member (used by the university to keep the committees honest).

I am now a Doctoral Candidate and can begin work on my dissertation. Yea, me!

And, since I haven't forgotten why we are all here - Support GWB! Dig deep and give! I have enjoyed talking to all of you while I went thru this process. It was a relief on many days to come to the Dose and be energized by great ladies (and gentlemen) who love our President. Thank you all!

[DrDeb]

Thank you so much for posting the DOSE this evening -- the pixes of the President (whether from today or 30 years ago) are AWESOME as usual!!!!!


FYI: The Washington Times published both of my recommended readings for today! You can find one of the articles at the following thread [Actually, I think most of you have already visited this thread]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1075896/posts


The other article is as follows:

George W. Bush -- grand strategist
By Tony Blankley
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The Boston Globe — the respected, liberal newspaper owned by the New York Times — ran an article last week that Bush critics may wish to read carefully. It is a report on a new book that argues that President Bush has developed and is ably implementing only the third American grand strategy in our history.

The author of this book, "Surprise, Security, and the American Experience" (Harvard Press) to be released in March, is John Lewis Gaddis, the Robert A. Lovett professor of military and naval history at Yale University. The Boston Globe describes Mr. Gaddis as "the dean of Cold War studies and one of the nation's most eminent diplomatic historians." In other words, this is not some put-up job by an obscure right-wing author. This comes from the pinnacle of the liberal Ivy League academic establishment.

If you hate George W. Bush, you will hate this Boston Globe story because it makes a strong case that Mr. Bush stands in a select category with presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and James Monroe (as guided by his secretary of state, John Q. Adams) in implementing one of only three grand strategies of American foreign policy in our two-century history.

As the Globe article describes in an interview with Mr. Gaddis: "Grand strategy is the blueprint from which policy follows. It envisions a country's mission, defines its interests, and sets its priorities. Part of grand strategy's grandeur lies in its durability: A single grand strategy can shape decades, even centuries of policy."

According to this analysis, the first grand strategy by Monroe/Adams followed the British invasion of Washington and the burning of the White House in 1814. They responded to that threat by developing a policy of gaining future security through territorial expansion — filling power vacuums with American pioneers before hostile powers could get in. That strategy lasted throughout the 19th and the early 20th centuries, and accounts for our continental size and historic security.

FDR's plans for the post-World War II period were the second grand strategy and gained American security by establishing free markets and self-determination in Europe as a safeguard against future European wars, while creating the United Nations and related agencies to help us manage the rest of the world and contain the Soviets. The end of the Cold War changed that and led, according to Mr. Gaddis, to President Clinton's assumption that a new grand strategy was not needed because globalization and democratization were inevitable. "Clinton said as much at one point. I think that was shallow. I think they were asleep at the switch," Mr. Gaddis observed.

That brings the professor to George W.Bush, who he describes as undergoing "one of the most surprising transformations of an underrated national leader since Prince Hal became Henry V." Clearly, Mr. Gaddis has not been a long-time admirer of Mr. Bush. But he is now.

He observes that Mr. Bush "undertook a decisive and courageous reassessment of American grand strategy following the shock of the 9/11 attacks. At his doctrine's center, Bush placed the democratization of the Middle East and the urgent need to prevent terrorists and rogue states from getting nuclear weapons. Bush also boldly rejected the constraints of an outmoded international system that was really nothing more that a snapshot of the configuration of power that existed in 1945."

It is worth noting that John Kerry and the other Democrats' central criticism of Mr. Bush — the prosaic argument that he should have taken no action without U.N. approval — is rejected by Mr. Gaddis as being a proposed policy that would be constrained by an "outmoded international system."

In assessing Mr. Bush's progress to date, the Boston Globe quotes Mr. Gaddis: "So far the military action in Iraq has produced a modest improvement in American and global economic conditions; an intensified dialogue within the Arab world about political reform; a withdrawal of American forces from Saudi Arabia; and an increasing nervousness on the part of the Syrian and Iranian governments as they contemplated the consequences of being surrounded by American clients or surrogates. The United States has emerged as a more powerful and purposeful actor within the international system than it had been on September 11, 2001."

In another recent article, written before the Iraqi war, Mr. Gaddis wrote: "[Bush's] grand strategy is actually looking toward the culmination of the Wilsonian project of a world safe for Democracy, even in the Middle East. And this long-term dimension of it, it seems to me, goes beyond what we've seen in the thinking of more recent administrations. It is more characteristic of the kind of thinking, say, that the Truman administration was doing at the beginning of the Cold War."

Is Mr. Bush becoming an historic world leader in the same category as FDR, as the eminent Ivy League professor argues? Or is he just a lying nitwit, as the eminent Democratic Party Chairman and Clinton fund-raiser Terry McAuliffe argues? I suspect that as this election year progresses, that may end up being the decisive debate. You can put me on the side of the professor.

Tony Blankley is editorial page editor of The Washington Times. His column appears on Wednesdays. E-mail: tblankley@washingtontimes.com

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040210-082912-8099r.htm

[lysie]

Please put me on your ping list. Thank you.

[W04Man]

Bump!

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