Argument against preventative war

[GreyPilgrim]

A friend of mine was listening to NPR today, and he heard a good case against preventative war. I've been looking for the audio feed or transcript, but I haven't located it. If anyone has it, please post it. :-)

But, there's an excellent quote that would be nice to see in a circulated e-mail.

"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure....
If today he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, "I see no probability of the British invading us," but he will say to you, "Be silent; I see it, if you don't."


Who said that? Abraham Lincoln (criticizing Polk's decision to invade Mexico to prevent war).

Y'all may have noted this quote before, but it's the first time I've read it.

[rainy]

1. Robert Byrd had this in one of his most beautiful speeches

I love Robert Byrd.

[K-W]

2. you are missing one important word, unilateral

If you think your neighbor is a threat, go to the security council. Let them decide if it really is a threat.

There is nothing wrong with truely preventing an imminent threat, there is a problem with letting a government decide when it is threatened or not.