WEST POINT, N.Y., June 1 -- President Bush told future Army officers today that the United States can no longer deter attacks from other nations by threatening massive retaliation, but instead must strike looming enemies first.
Bush's new description of his foreign policy, sketched during the graduation address he gave at the United States Military Academy, sharply revised the positions he took as a candidate, when he emphasized the need to limit U.S. intervention to regions with immediate bearing on the nation's strategic interests.
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Today, Bush said the nation "must uncover terror cells in 60 or more countries," or roughly one-third of the world. He renewed his months-old promise to "confront regimes that sponsor terror," even though he has found few American allies to endorse his desire to unseat Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the Pentagon has told him that the military could be stretched too thin.
"We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge," Bush told the cadets, who listened pensively on West Point's football field as their parents applauded robustly from the stands. "In the world we have entered, the only path to safety is the path of action. And this nation will act."
The speech was the broadest definition to date of the way Bush sees America's new role in the world after the Sept. 11 attacks. He said that not only will the United States impose preemptive, unilateral military force when and where it chooses, but the nation will also punish those who engage in terror and aggression and will work to impose a universal moral clarity between good and evil.
A preemptive strategic posture not only would require the U.S. military to be faster and more flexible, which the administration already wants, but also would dictate a fundamental shift in how the military thinks about warfare. Historically, the U.S. military has not conducted preemptive or surprise attacks, such as Israel's attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 or Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Moving beyond the doctrine Bush enunciated last fall as a plan for rooting out terrorism and nations that support it, the speech wove together a number of additional themes that have emerged over several months into what a senior administration official described as an "overall security framework" that will be further explained in coming months, including in the National Security Strategy document due out this summer.
The framework places Bush in a far different position than the campaigner of two years ago who criticized President Bill Clinton for trying to be "the world's policeman," depending too much on the views of others to set American priorities and spending too much on foreign assistance with no direct U.S. benefit.
"Our nation's cause has always been larger than our nation's defense," Bush said today. He outlined three objectives that a White House official called the "three silos" of his foreign policy. Bush said the United States should aim to "defend the peace against threats from terrorists and tyrants," "preserve the peace by building good relations among the great powers" and "extend the peace by encouraging free and open societies on every continent."
Bush said the Cold War doctrine of deterrence, intended to curb potential aggressors through fear of overwhelming retaliation, "means nothing against shadowy terrorist networks with no nation or citizens to defend." He said containment, an effort to restrict a state's oppression within its borders, "is not possible when unbalanced dictators with weapons of mass destruction can deliver those weapons on missiles or secretly provide them to terrorist allies." Aides called that a reference to Iraq and North Korea.
"If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long," Bush said. "The war on terror will not be won on the defensive."
He acknowledged a broader vision of U.S. interests than he did as a candidate. "In our development aid, in our diplomatic efforts, in our international broadcasting and in our educational assistance, the United States will promote moderation and tolerance and human rights," he said. "The requirements of freedom apply fully to Africa and Latin America and the entire Islamic world."
The White House maintains that Bush has developed this vision throughout his candidacy and presidency by stressing the end of the armed conflicts among the world's great powers that characterized the past two centuries. "The war on terrorism and the enormity of that and the enormity of American leadership and the kind of earthquake that has produced in international politics puts us in a different place than we were two years ago," a senior administration official said. "But clearly, the elements were always there."
Today's 52-minute speech came at a time when White House officials feel Bush must demonstrate anew the command of world affairs that won him praise as he assembled a coalition to support his devastating military offensive against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Bush confidants say he turned in a mixed performance during his weeklong tour of Russia and Europe that ended Tuesday.
Bush issued criticism that aides said was directed at Saudi Arabia, a moderate Arab state that is a U.S. ally but has produced extremists, including several of the Sept. 11 hijackers. "Some nations need military training to fight terror, and we'll provide it," he said. "Other nations oppose terror, but tolerate the hatred that leads to terror. And that must change." A White House official said that message also applies to other countries, including Jordan.
Bush made several mentions of the need for fair judicial systems and the rights of women. Those comments also appeared directed toward the Saudis, among others. Even as the White House has deepened its cooperation with Riyadh on the Middle East crisis, congressional and other critics have accused the administration of ignoring that country's undemocratic and discriminatory culture.
Citing former presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan as leaders who "refused to gloss over the brutality of tyrants," Bush said "moral clarity" would continue to be part of the U.S. arsenal, with military and other assistance provided to those who need it and criticism to those who deserve it. He then defended his "axis of evil" description of Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
"Some worry that it is somehow undiplomatic or impolite to speak the language of right and wrong," he said. "I disagree. Different circumstances require different methods, but not different moralities."
The world Bush described was one in which the United States would lead a coalition of great powers -- including Europe, Japan, Russia and eventually China -- that share a set of values and defense priorities, allowing them to unite in stopping threats from terrorists and rogue nations and rewarding less developed states that move toward Western economic and political systems.
"We have our best chance since the rise of the nation-state in the 17th century to build a world where the great powers compete in peace instead of prepare for war," Bush said. "The United States, Japan and our Pacific friends, and now all of Europe, share a deep commitment to human freedom."
The war against terrorism has been marked by international cooperation, and the big power states are currently cooperating on efforts to ease tensions between India and Pakistan. But deep disagreements remain over how to respond to a number of international crises. Chief among them is European concern, shared by Arab allies, over the prospect of U.S. military action against Iraq. Bush made no specific mention of Hussein, but the Iraqi president was the target of a warning against "the perilous crossroads of radicalism and technology," including chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
Bush omitted the usual administration caveat to such bellicose statements: that the United States has no current strike plans against Iraq and will consult its allies. A senior administration official said there was no conflict between Bush's pledge to act and U.S. promises to consult, which Bush stressed during his European journey.
"Since there are no specific plans for Iraq of a military sort, those consultations are just going on," the official said.
The official said that although Bush has had little success so far, he is working to convince others through intellectual argument that rogue nations are not just a threat to the United States. "You do have to rally the world to an understanding of these threats and these dangers," the official said. "The United States bears a disproportionate responsibility for security."
DeYoung reported from Washington. Staff writer Thomas E. Ricks contributed to this report.
