President Obama: The Audacity of Hope

I would also argue that we have the right to take unilateral military action to eliminate an imminent theart to our security-so long as an imminent threat is understood to be a nation,group,or individual that is actively preparing to strike U.S.targets{or allies with which the United States has mutual defense agreements],and has or will have the means to do so in the immediate future.Al Qaeda qualifies under this standard,and we can and should carry out preemptive strikes against them whenever we can.