Merriam-Webster's Unabridged defines "imminent" as "hanging threateningly over one's head," and President Bush may be feeling as though the word itself is hanging threateningly over his head these days as enemies try to spin his use of it to their advantage.
Safire has the story behind the story of that loaded word in his "On Language" column today, quoting from a white paper issued by the White House shortly after the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks:
''For centuries, international law recognized that nations need not suffer an attack before they can lawfully take action to defend themselves against forces that present an imminent danger of attack." The legitimacy of ''preemption'' was often conditioned ''on the existence of an imminent threat -- most often a visible mobilization of armies, navies and air forces preparing to attack.'' Because rogue states and terrorists strike without such warning, ''we must adapt the concept of imminent threat to the capabilities and objectives of today's adversaries."
. . . Evidently Bush had been briefed on the weight of that word. On Oct. 21 of that year, asked by Ron Fournier of The Associated Press whether North Korea was ''an imminent threat to the U.S.'' in its nuclear buildup, the president replied carefully: ''You know, that's an operative word. . . . I believe we can do it peacefully.''
Okay, so it comes down to a legal issue . . . Hadn't known that before . . . You don't use "imminent" lightly:
A White House spokesman used the word in February 2003 in the context of NATO protecting Turkey from retaliation, but Bush used it in his 2003 State of the Union address in a way that disputed its necessity: ''Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike?''
That said (as they say), you can't win:
So . . . did Bush claim an imminent threat? Interrogated in detail on this by Tony Snow of Fox News, Senator Jay Rockefeller, ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, who said in 2002 that ''I do believe that Iraq poses an imminent threat,'' replied about the Bush address in 2003: ''If the word imminent threat wasn't used, that was the predicate, that was the feeling that was given to the American people and to Congress."
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