The Carter Doctrine does not apply to Iraq, Teribus; it was limited to preventing outside interference, notably by the USSR, in US interests relating to Saudi Arabia, foremost, and secondarily the rest of the Persian Gulf region. It cannot be used as a justification for unilateral invasion absent a precipitating offensive move on the part of another country.

It was the Reagan corollary that extended it to internal matters, which is surely what the Iraq invasion was about. This shifted the Carter doctrine and placed the self-anointed mantle of "arbitrary police of other nations" on the shoulders of America, wanted or not.


A