George,

With this administration bound and determined to go to war, there is little difference between pre-emption and unilateralism. The result is going to be the same.

If Bush orders military action without the support of the UN, it is unilateral. If he orders action before the Inspectors are finished, it is pre-emptive.

I believe he has planned this war all along, otherwise there is little or no justification for the millions(billions) of dollars spent equipping and moving military units to the Middle East, building state of the art military bases in Qatar, having special forces on the ground in Iraq, mobilizing thousands of National Guard and reservists and disrupting hundreds of thousands of American lives.

Martha Wood (electronic mail, February 13, 2003)