Preventative War

That's an interesting phrase. One is reminded of the phrase "war to end all wars." How did that work out for the world? When we fight a "preventative" war with Iraq, what are we trying to prevent? Weapons of mass destruction I suppose. How did that work out?

Anyway if you want another historical perspective, you might check out this article by Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

Enter George W. Bush as the great exponent of preventive war. In 2003, owing to the collapse of the Democratic opposition, Bush shifted the base of American foreign policy from containment-deterrence to presidential preventive war: Be silent; I see it, if you don't. Observers describe Bush as "messianic" in his conviction that he is fulfilling the divine purpose. But, as Lincoln observed in his second inaugural address, "The Almighty has His own purposes."

There stretch ahead for Bush a thousand days of his own. He might use them to start the third Bush war: the Afghan war (justified), the Iraq war (based on fantasy, deception and self-deception), the Iran war (also fantasy, deception and self-deception). There is no more dangerous thing for a democracy than a foreign policy based on presidential preventive war.

Kind of troubling, particularly when you consider the history of the Cuban Missle crisis.