The Powell Doctrine: Why This Litmus Test, Applied to Iraq Surge or Possible War With Iran, Tells Us "No Go!"
[Ed. note: I wrote about this at All Things Democrat, but I believe the more people who see this, the better.]
African American Political Pundit reminds us of the Powell Doctrine (as in former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman and original Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell), something the Bush Administration has clearly never studied. Go through the AAPP post, answer the questions, and I think you may agree with me that this absolutely negates Bush's planned Iraq War surge/escalation (and should have kept us out of Iraq and possibly Afghanistan, too) and should blow any plan to go after Iran right out of the Bush-muddied water.
Read the whole post, but here are the questions posed by the doctrine:
- Is a vital national security interest threatened?
- Do we have a clear attainable objective?
- Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
- Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
- Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
- Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
- Is the action supported by the American people?
- Do we have genuine broad international support?
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