Are the Republicans falling into a dangerous trap by arguing [View All]

[GumboYaYa]

that Bush never said Iraq was an imminent threat to the United States?

Before the war started, many legal scholars argued that the war in Iraq would be illegal under current norms of international law. There are apparently two justifications for war. Self-defense and U.N. authorization. Pre-emptive war stretches the concept of self defense to argue that a country need not wait to be attacked, but may defend itself if there is an imminent threat of attack.

The Republicans are now arguing that Iraq was not an imminent threat and Bush never said or thought it was. If so, are they not also making the argument that the invasion of Iraq was illegal and Bush is a war criminal?

I see no point to search through speeches and press releases to argue that Bush really did say Iraq was an imminent threat. We can simply point out that if it is true that Bush did not feel Iraq was an imminent threat then the war was illegal.