Putin: Preparing pre-emptive strikes

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Moscow's threat to launch preemptive strikes on terror bases around the world following the school massacre in southern Russia drew support from London and Washington today but sparked misgivings in several other capitals.

...In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said today that Russia's stance was "understandable" and within international law.

"I think the reaction is an understandable one," said Straw. "The United Nations charter does give the right of self-defence and the UN itself has accepted that an imminent or likely threat of terrorism certainly entitles any state to take appropriate action."

...A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington did not oppose Russia's stance.

...Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan meanwhile took issue with Moscow's position, saying no country "no matter how powerful" can combat terrorism "with a one-sided approach, saying 'I will act and I will clear up the matter'."

So if an Arab terrorist blows up, say, a school in Moscow, would Putin invade Saudi Arabia, our ally in the "War on Terror"?

Will the UN intervene?

Meanwhile, Islamists rediscover the joys of preemptive wars, too as seen from this somewhat outrageously titled AFP story.

Dubai: Al-Qaeda’s number two leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has hijacked the US concept of a pre-emptive strike — used to try to justify the invasion of Iraq — to urge young Muslims to attack countries backing Washington and Israel, analysts said on Saturday.

In an audiotape broadcast on Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television on Friday, Zawahiri effectively called on Muslim youth to “take the initiative and wage a preventive war, a concept championed by the United States,” Abdelbari Atwan, editor of the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, told AFP.