Preemptive Action Quotes
Announcing that U. S. naval forces would attack German war vessels that entered "American protected waters" despite our not being at war:
This statement told the world that the United States might preemptively attack Iraq because the Iraqis were developing nuclear weapons. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq and there it turned out that was no nuclear program of any type in Iraq. There has been a debate ever since as to whether Bush and his key advisors lied knowingly to justify a war they wanted, wanted the war and pressured the intelligence agencies to warn of a clear nuclear development program, or were duped by incompetent intelligence agencies. While American troops were bogged down in Iraq, North Korea tested a nuclear weapon and Iran announced an enrichment program for weapons grade.
German ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had declared war on Serbia. See {642085}. The Russian Czar was under great pressure because a large Roman Catholic Empire was warring against a small Orthodox co-religionist of Russia and Russians of all classes wanted Russia to defend Serbia. The Czar was making a good faith effort to stave off the war. What he did not realize was that Germany had actually planned for war against Russia and France and was using the alliance with Austria as an excuse.
People at both ends of this polarized issue had deep suspicions of people at the other pole.
Two years later, In August 1990, Iraq invaded and conquered Kuwait. This quotation was used in the 1990 Iraq crisis by President George W. Bush in his television speech to the Iraqi people.
