Joe Klein: There Is Only One Single Solitary Definition of "The Bush Doctrine," and I Am an Expert on Both of Them

People have called at least three notions "the Bush Doctrine." 1, Preventative war, which Klein states is the only definition now; 2, that terrorist supporting states will be treated as we treat the terrorists themselves; and 3, that American policy should embrace a "Freedom Agenda," the idea being that functional, democratic, free states are not prone to give rise to terrorists.

There are more definitions, too, and people argue over them.

Klein is now insisting there's only one definition.

But here's Klein, in 2005:

One can only imagine the Republican wrath and utter ridicule-the Rush Limbaugh fulminations-if, say, John Kerry had proposed a similar policy: Let’s pin our Middle East hopes on the statesmanship of Hizballah and Hamas. But that is where the democratic idealism of the Bush Doctrine has led us.

Note he employed this definition well after the announcement of the preventative war definition he now claims is the sole definition of the Bush Doctrine.

If super-expert on everything Joe Klein gets his definitions confused, what hope do the rest of us have?

As a Christian life-long card-carrying "Rethuglican" (I'm so hard-core I actually registered as "Rethuglican;" I had to sue the state to permit this), I find great wisdom in just about everything Joe Klein writes.

posted by Ace at 04:10 PM

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