I'm afraid that whether or not the current plan for war with Iraq meets the stipulations of what constitutes a just war is not a matter that concerns the Bush Administration.

You may have already seen this, but if not, you can check it out HERE. It takes a while to load, but it's well worth listening to if you are really interested in knowing where the Bush Doctrine and our current international situation comes from. [Technical Note: My computer is a Pentium II 350MHz w/128 MB RAM. I have a dial-up modem (56K), so attempts to see the video of the show were most frustrating. I found that if I chose "Windows Media Low," I was able to listen to the audio without problems and irritating interruptions, and I found that sufficient to get what the program really had to offer.

This is nobody's half-assed "conspiracy theory." It was covered by this Frontline program and by Now, with Bill Moyers a couple of weeks ago.

Paul Wolfowitz and others went to Texas in the mid-Nineties to tutor George W. Bush in politics, and in particular, his view of what the United States' role should be now that the Soviet Union was gone (when Bush Senior was President, he had been interested, but unreceptive). Wolfowitz' groomed Bush Junior to become President, coaching him to carry out the foreign policy as he envisioned it:— that with the demise of the Soviet Union, the United States should take an uncontested dominant role in world politics and economics in the twenty-first century. The first step is to taking control the Middle East and the oil reserves. Wolfowitz was disappointed with the way Bush Senior had handled the Gulf War. The ultimate goal is the "Democratization of the World" (definition of "a democracy" — any country, no matter what it's internal politics, that is friendly to U. S. economic and political interests). This policy includes the idea that, instead of the previous strategy of containment, the United States should apply a strategy of preemptive attack against potential opposition, chiefly Iraq, Iran, and North Korea (the "Axis of Evil"). Bigger nations may come later, if necessary.

George W. Bush may be the President, but the real dagger behind the throne is Paul Wolfowitz, with Donald Rumsfeld as back-up. Colin Powell, who opposes this doctrine, has been reduced to the role of court jester.

The so-called Bush Doctrine is actually the Wolfowitz doctrine. There is Good and there is Evil. We are Good. They are Evil. It is our God-given duty to eliminate Evil in the world. Wolfowitz's draft of his view of what the U. S. foreign policy should be was leaked to the press in 1992, much to Wolfowitz's irritation. The current document outlining U. S. National Security Strategy is essentially the same as Wolfowitz' 1992 draft.

This, plus the unquestioning support of Israel, no matter what it does, seems to me to be all very Book of Revelations. Considering the theological background of most of the members of the Bush Administration, this may be relevant. Perhaps feeling that they are "ordained," they may not find the prohibitions inherent in the concept of "just war" very persuasive.

Don Firth