Obama Rewrites America’s Nat’l Security Strategy

The first-strike mentality of the Bush years, along with the attendant unilateral military exploits, has fallen from favor in President Barack Obama’s revised national security scheme for the U.S. — or so goes the spin on that plan. Some might take issue with the first-strike notion, given America’s whole ongoing drones-over-Pakistan scenario, for example. –KA

AP via Google News:

In the president’s first formal declaration of his national security strategy, Obama breaks with some of his predecessors in putting heavy emphasis on the value of global cooperation, developing wider security partnerships and helping other nations defend themselves.

Obama’s apparent effort to move away from the Bush national security legacy without outright repudiation of it seemed likely to draw criticism from the left, which had hoped for a more direct rejection of the doctrine of pre-emptive war. Republicans, on the other hand, seem certain to criticize the policy’s emphasis on diplomacy and development aid as evidence Obama is weak on defense issues.

While the document describes the Obama administration’s broad national security goals, it mentions al-Qaida specifically and repeatedly and singles out U.S. adversaries Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs.

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