Washington, October 16: The US Department of Defense is reviewing the Bush administration’s doctrine of preemptive military strikes that allows Washington to attack countries it believes will pose a threat in the future.
The world is “more complex” than it was in 2002, when former president George W. Bush announced the policy, Kathleen Hicks, a deputy undersecretary for strategy, told Bloomberg.
The policy is under review, and if the Pentagon finds it no longer applies to current circumstances, it will be revoked in its next Quadrennial Defense Review, she added.
“We’d really like to update our use-of-force doctrine to start to take account for that,” Hicks said on Thursday.
In a 2002 address to graduates of West Point Military Academy, Bush announced the doctrine of preemption, paving the way for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 under the pretext of having weapons of mass destruction.
Washington has spent billion of dollars for the highly unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but has been unable to curb rising militancy or arrest any key militant leaders.
A new report by the Congressional Research Services showed that the US spends about $3.6 billion a month in Afghanistan since the beginning of the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.
Moreover, many US and NATO troops were killed in war zones and countless lives from Afghan and Iraqi civilians have been claimed during nearly a decade-long war. Many people have also been forced to evacuate their homes.
Congress requires the administration to report its national security strategy annually, and it requires the Pentagon to reassess its policies and war-fighting doctrine every four years.
The Obama administration will state its security doctrine for the first time as part of the Pentagon’s review, which will be given to Congress in February.
Analysts say the Obama administration may want to retain the doctrine in case of a possible future terrorist attack, but would want to narrow its uses so as to avoid looking like it is continuing Bush-era foreign policy.
—–Agencies