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Disarmament DocumentationBack to Disarmament Documentation 'The Bush Doctrine Is Actually Being Defined By Action': Remarks by President George W. Bush, April 24'Interview of the President by Tom Brokaw, NBC, Aboard Air Force One, Canton, Ohio, April 24, 2003'; The White House, Office of the Press Secretary. Question: North Korea today saying that it's reprocessed 8,000 plutonium rods and if you don't start talking to them, they're willing to sell them. President Bush: Yes. See, they're back to the old blackmail game. One of our goals and objectives must be to strengthen the non-proliferation regimes and get the whole world focused on proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or the materials for weapons of mass destruction, and North Korea is making my case, that we've got to come together. And we started that process in the North Korean peninsula that is coming together. The Chinese now, for the first time, are partners at the table. I look forward to hearing what the Chinese say about being rebuffed by the North Koreans because they, too, believe that the Peninsula ought to be nuclear weapons-free. This will give us an opportunity to say to the North Koreans and the world we're not going to be threatened. On the other hand we, the world, must come together to make sure institutions like the IAEA are effective at stopping proliferation. It's another reason, by the way for us to also advance the missile defense systems, because the missile defense system will make it less likely that a nuclear country could blackmail us or Japan or any one of our friends.... Question: Now that the war in Iraq is effectively over, have you thought about a Bush doctrine that is a comprehensive structure of some kind, on a global basis, for dealing with weapons of mass destruction and the need, even, of preemptive strikes against rogue nations? President Bush: Well, the Bush doctrine is actually being defined by action, as opposed to by words. Although, I think if you compile a lot of the speeches I've given, you could come up with the Bush doctrine. The way I view the post-Saddam Iraq opportunities are these, one, that we can deal more effectively with weapons of mass destruction, that we made it clear that people who harbor weapons of mass destruction will be dealt with. Hopefully, most of it can be done diplomatically. And you'll see us - see me, as well as members of my administration, begin to push for new international protocols that will make international organizations more effective at stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction. ... © 2003 The Acronym Institute. |