Reply #95: Article 51 of the UN Charter allows pre-emptive strikes but only

[Larkspur]

conditionally, that is if a threat of attack is proven to be imminent. Al Gore said this in his Sep. 23, 2002 speech on Iraq.

An historic example of this article's usage was the 1967 6-Day war when Arab forces literally were surrounding Israel and Israel launced a pre-emptive strike on those forces. That pre-emptive strike is the major reason why Israel won that war.

Bush's pre-emptive strike doctrine wants to give ONLY the US the power to decide when to pre-emptively strike.

No President of the United States or leader of any foreign country, who really cares about his/her people, will sit idle when a foe is actually preparing to attack their country. There are legitamite times for pre-emptive strikes, but they should be few and far between because diplomacy and trade, fair trade, should lesson those volitile instances.