Why We Fight Page #3

themselves, correctly I think,

'We need to rethink American foreign policy'

And I think that would have happened

even without the September 11th.

But September 11th was really the event,

that changed American foreign policy.

When I was in a Pentagon, when we

got hit, you know, yes it did change.

It was a very dramatic and terrible thing.

And it does change the perspective. But the war

in Iraq had nothing to do with war on terrorism.

There was a huge leap, a

manufactured leap. In order to...

implement a very calculated and

predeveloped foreign policy.

We must take the battle to the

enemy, disrupt his plans...

and confront the worst

threats before they emerge.

The Bush doctrine is that

preemptive strikes or preemptive...

conflicts, which would never

contemplated in the past,

now have to be contemplated

under certain scenarios.

If you saw the missile about to

be launched and you could...

kick it over before it could be

launched, you'd do it, of course.

If you saw someone about to

shoot at you and you thought...

you can shoot first, you'd

do it. It's common sense.

I don't know anybody who

doesn't agree with that.

So what's the big fuss about preemption?

March 19th is a night I will never forget.

March 19th is one for the history books.

It's one for my personal history books.

On March 19, 2003, the U.S. Air Force

Stealth Fighter Wing was ordered...

to conduct a precision airstrike

on a location in southern Baghdad.

When we first got the phone call, all what

they told us, we have a high priority mission.

A high value target. It was one of those SAS,

it was a leadership target.

The F-117 is an extraordinary

machine and it is only ordered...

forward on the order of the President

or the Secretary of Defense.

First night od the conflict, the

All they had to do is be briefed,

have the weapons put on.

The whole mission up to this point

was kept at the top secret levels.

I think they really didn't expect both of us

to come back, which is why they sent two jets.

It's now 3:
30, we have to hit the

target at 5:
30 or all bets are off.

The President of the United States

called it a target of opportunity,

and they wanted to take

advantage of it and they did.

It's quite chilly and cold,

I'm looking southwards,

expecting any attack to come in from the south.

The choice in the timing is entirely now

in the hands of the allies.

The Bush doctrine is certainly not something

unprecedented, unknown in American life.

This statement that we are going to

dominate the world through military power,

that we reserve to ourselves

the right of preemptive war.

It is an extreme statement of what

has been there in the works for a long time.

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