Once more for the doubters:
Vice President Tells West Point Cadets "Bush Doctrine" Is SeriousSgt. 1st Class Doug Sample WASHINGTON, June 2, 2003 — "If there is anyone in the world today who doubts the seriousness of the Bush Doctrine, I would urge that person to consider the fate of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq," Vice President Richard Cheney told an applauding 2003 West Point graduating class May 31. The doctrine asserts that states supporting terrorists, or providing sanctuary for terrorists, will be deemed just as guilty of crimes as the terrorists themselves, Cheney noted in his commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy. "Before 9-11, all too many nations tended to draw a distinction between the terrorist groups and the states that provided these groups with support. They were unwilling to hold these terror-sponsoring states accountable for their actions." After 9-11, the president "decided that the distinction between the terrorists and their sponsors should no longer stand," he said. Cheney added perspective to the president's actions by saying that in 20 months since the Sept. 11 attacks, "the United States has freed two nations from oppression and terror." "We destroyed the al Qaeda's grip on Afghanistan, removed the repressive Taliban regime from power, and nearly half of al Qaeda's leadership has been captured or killed. In Iraq, a regime that supported terrorists, brutalized its own people and threatened its neighbors and the peace of the world is no more," Cheney said. But the vice president cautioned cadets that although the battle of Iraq was a major victory in the war on terrorism, the war itself is far from over. "We cannot allow ourselves to grow complacent," he said. "We cannot forget that the terrorists remain determined to kill as many Americans as possible, both abroad and here at home, and they are still seeking weapons of mass destruction to use against us. "With such an enemy, no peace treaty is possible; no policy of containment or deterrence will prove effective. The only way to deal with this threat is to destroy it, completely and utterly." |