OUNCE OF PREVENTION: Forestalling a terror contagion, one sore Iraqi throat at a time
People with cancer think highly of pre-emption: cut the tumor out, fast. Get it before it gets you. That's the way the Bush Administration thinks of terrorism. Last year, its new National Security Strategy stated that "the enemies of civilization openly and actively seek the world's most destructive technologies," and "to forestall or prevent ... hostile acts by our adversaries, the United States will, if necessary, act pre-emptively." The idea of this new doctrine is to free the huge American superiority in satellites and smart bombs from traditional constraints, under which an attack must be imminent to trigger the right to...
