Bush Doctrine is not Natural Law

Lamont Colucci’s creative spin on “The Bush Doctrine” (Washington Times, Oct. 10, 2008) is more than revisionist history of Bush’s policy evolution before and after September 11. Colucci’s basic tenant is inherently flawed. Nature’s only real laws are gravity, survival of the fittest, and ‘every action has an opposite and equal reaction’. If America or humanity continues to adhere to these laws our nation and our species is doomed to the same path of extinction that 99.99% of all other life forms that have ever existed have followed. We repeatedly break the laws of gravity. We can also resist nature’s law of forceful dominance and military retaliation.
Our Founding Fathers created our great republic on the foundation the ‘rule of law’ but they also made some basic mistakes. To be effective the Rule of Law must have laws that treat all people equally. Laws made and enforce by a democratic process and laws that are consistently protective of a basic set of inalienable rights. Rights that are not dictated by age, skin color, religion, kings, politicians or courts.
Unfortunately Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 conformed with a natural “law of force” and this was horrifically contrary to the rule of law. And invasive pre-emptive military force is not “liberty under law” or, as Colucci claims “the natural extension of the creator’s wishes”. Shock and Awe war is not an extension of the creator’s wishes. War is the opposite of law.
The Global War against Terrorism that Bush officially launched after 9-11 reinforced the global use of ‘war’ (military violence that accepts the death of innocence as collateral damage) as a legitimate problem solver. But, war is never a “non-negotiable demand of human dignity”. Accepting the murder of innocent civilians as collateral damage (even if not intentional) as a price to pay for defending American freedoms, particularly our freedom to buy and burn foreign oil, is not natural law, God’s law or the rule of law. It’s business as usual that leads to the loss of civilization as we know it…and eventually the extinction of our species.
If Bush had launched a global police action against the mass murderers who attacked us on 9-11, with collateral damage anywhere, an unacceptable loss, then Colucci may have had a point. And the evolution of Bush’s failed doctrines as almost brought us this point. Our military leaders finally figured out that we cannot “kill our way to victory” in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or the global war on terror. And, the U.S. Army has begun to implement it’s new core mission of nation building and our military forces are now being used for building schools, digging wells and staffing health clinics. Military force may still be used but not in the context of war. Our police officers and swat teams also use military weapons and tactics. For them accepting collateral damage is unthinkable. When civians are killed police are held accountable under the force of law. Until we apply the same standards globally, we are on the path of extinction…which is still a valid aspect of nature’s law.