Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports that the first full statement of U.S. strategic goals since 2002 will be released later today. The report will be unveiled by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley—its primary author—in a speech in Washington.

Reportedly, the report’s focus is Iran. It denounces Iran as an “ally of terror” and “enemy of freedom,” but mainly for its apparent pursuit of nuclear weapons. “We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran,” it reads. By contrast, it describes North Korea’s illicit nuclear-weapons program as a “serious nuclear proliferation challenge.”

New York Times

The New York Times says that the document declares that American-led diplomacy to halt Iran’s program to enrich nuclear fuel “must succeed if confrontation is to be avoided,” a near final draft of the document says. But it carefully avoids spelling out what steps the US might take if diplomacy fails, and it makes no such direct threat of confrontation with North Korea.

Elsewhere:

    China: It’s leaders are “expanding trade, but acting as if they can somehow ‘lock up’ energy supplies around the world or seek to direct markets rather than opening them up — as if they can follow a mercantilism borrowed from a discredited era.”

    Russia: “Recent trends regrettably point toward a diminishing commitment to democratic freedoms and institutions,” the document reads. In a much tougher tone than the 2002 document, it emphasizes that the future of the relationship with Russia “will depend on the policies, foreign and domestic, that Russia adopts.”

Washington Post

The Washington Post reports that the report reaffirms the preemptive war doctrine against terrorists and hostile states with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Bush offers no second thoughts about the preemption policy, saying it “remains the same” and defending it as necessary for a country in the “early years of a long struggle” akin to the Cold War.

If necessary, however, under long-standing principles of self defense, we do not rule out use of force before attacks occur, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy’s attack. When the consequences of an attack with WMD are potentially so devastating, we cannot afford to stand idly by as grave dangers materialize.

In addition:

    Without saying what action would be taken against them, the strategy singles out seven nations as prime examples of “despotic systems”—North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Belarus, Burma and Zimbabwe.

    To assuage allies antagonized by Bush’s go-it-alone style in his first term, the White House stresses alliance and the use of what it calls “transformational diplomacy” to achieve change. At the same time, it asserts that formal structures such as the United Nations or NATO may at times be less effective than “coalitions of the willing,” or groups responding to particular situations, such as the Asian tsunami of 2004.

    Beyond the military response to terrorism, the document emphasizes the need to fight the war of ideas against Islamic radicals whose anti-American rhetoric has won wide sympathy in parts of the world.