Bush: how I'll rule the world

The Bush Administration has spelt out its determination to enforce America's global domination, insisting it will allow no other power to challenge its military and economic supremacy.

In a 33-page document, published overnight Sydney time, President George Bush says the US will never allow its military might to be challenged the way it was during the Cold War.

It says "the President has no intention of allowing any foreign power to catch up with the huge lead the United States has opened since the fall of the Soviet Union more than a decade ago".

The document, titled The National Security Strategy of the United States, declares the policies of containment and deterrence - staples since the 1940s - all but dead. There was no way in this changed world to deter those who "hate the United States and everything for which it stands".

"America is now threatened less by conquering states than we are by failing ones."

The document delivers Mr Bush's first comprehensive rationale for shifting military strategy towards pre-emptive action against hostile states and terrorist groups developing weapons of mass destruction.

He also seeks to answer the critics of growing US muscle-flexing by insisting that it will exploit its military and economic power to encourage "free and open societies" rather than seek "unilateral advantage". The document calls this "a distinctly American internationalism".

Mr Bush put the final touches on the strategy last weekend at Camp David, after working on it for months with his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and with other members of the national security team.

It is the first wide-ranging explanation of the Administration's foreign policy - from defence strategy to global warming.

Much of the document focuses on how public diplomacy, the use of foreign aid, and changes in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank can be used to win what it calls a battle of competing values and ideas - including "a battle for the future of the Muslim world".

It describes a commitment to bolster US foreign aid by 50 per cent in the next few years in "countries whose governments rule justly, invest in their people, and encourage economic freedom".

A senior White House official said Mr Bush had edited the document heavily "because he thought there were sections where we sounded overbearing or arrogant".

But its hawkishness is clear. "Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or equalling, the power of the United States."

With Russia no longer able to come close to matching US military spending, the doctrine seems aimed at rising powers like China. It cites the non-proliferation agreements that have failed to prevent Iran, North Korea, Iraq and other countries from obtaining weapons of mass destruction.

It says the US will never subject its citizens to the new International Criminal Court, "whose jurisdiction does not extend to Americans".

The document makes no reference to the Kyoto accord but sets an overall objective of cutting US greenhouse gas emissions "per unit of economic activity by 18 per cent over the next 10 years".

On another thread I dismissed Condi Rice as an "empty skirt" because of the failure of US intelligence and law enforcement authorities to detect and prevent the 9-11 attacks. I am re-thinking this position --

I am glad you rethought your position on Condi Rice. She seems like a pretty solid person who knows what she is doing.

As for the intelligence issue surrounding 9-11 i think the problem there was not lack of intelligence but inability to utilize it effectively. The guys were over-saturated with info, and by the time they could get through it all it was effectively too late.

It is somewhat akin to being given a bank code that will open a vault with 700 million bucks, and you have to open the vault within an hour or the offer gets reneged. But the catch is that correct bank code is mixed with thousands of other codes that are obviously shams. And the clock is ticking!

Although the analogy is crude that is what faced the intelligence organizations. Furthermore they were not even communicating effectively with each other. The FBI knew stuff the CIA did not know, the CIA knew stuff the NSA did not know and so forth. In essence they each had piecemeal information that if put together might have prevented 9-11, but it was never brought as one cohesive whole!

Actually there was an interesting case a couple of months ago when a radioactivity detector at the US-Canada border picked up a spike in radioactivity, meaning a vehicle had crossed from Canada to the US with a load that had radioactivity inherent in it. The problem is that by the time that information got processed 2 days had passed! This cargo could have been something benign as medical equipment, or even ceramics that were emitting a higher level of radiation than the 'normal' natural levels. Or it could have been a nuke! The problem is that even though the stuff was detected there was a lapse betweent he detection and when the information could be utilized.

Acquiring pertinent information in my opinion is only 30% of intelligence work .....the other 50% is being able to utilize it effectively! The other 20% in my opinion is luck!

Collecting information (especially for the United States) is relatively easy. The US informaion gathering assets are not only legion but they are mighty effective! The problem is getting that information and being able to use it before it expires. Just think about the many gigabytes of info that stream into the NSA and CIA every single day! Information from around the globe, all of it amorphous and some of it quite threatening. And then there are sleeper cells in the US. There is so much information that needs to be sorted out that it is very hard to not make a mistake and miss some vital clue that could prevent a 9-11 scenario!

By the way in the Cold War most of the information collected by 'spies' was through what was known as 'white sources' meaning the spooks would go to Russia (and Russian spooks would travel to the states) where they would purchase magazines and newspapers and get a feel of the general situation in that nation. This was more ubiquitous than more 'orthodox' spy stuff like taps and moles (although obviously moles would provide the really juicy info ....for example the Walker spy ring that shovelled vital secrets to the USSR). And what was important was being able to use the info retrieved.

Any intelligence org can collect information. The crux is being able to break it and use it before it expires.

Before 9-11 the various intelligence agencies seemed to be competing against each other and in effect getting portions of info instead of the whole picture. Luckily they have solved that problem today (and i believe forever, i hope). However they still have the other problem of information saturation. And this is an area that does not only require great skill but will always require loads of luck as a vital necessity.

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