And, again, if you’re waiting for the smoking gun, the problem is when you see the smoke coming out of the gun it’s too late, the damage has been done.

That’s press secretary Ari Fleischer in Monday’s White House press briefing. It all sounds good, but unless you’ve got the pre-cogs from Minority Report on your side, it’s not smart to act without evidence — and we just haven’t been given any.

The unprecedented stance for a pre-emptive strike the government has taken can best be summed up as “guilty until proven innocent.” It’s an awful way for the world’s sole remaining superpower to behave. We must have a clear, consistent standard. And we must have proof.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 28th, 2003 at 3:49 am and is filed under Law & Politics.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.