This is John Batchelor, conversation with Cliff May, my colleague, the founder and president of the

Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, asking, what is an imminent threat?

Must you wait for the trigger to be pulled or the finger on the trigger in order to respond and defend yourself?

This is relevant because of the rhetoric that

Iran represented no imminent threat. No one disputes that it's been attacking America in some

fashion for 47 years. However, imminent threat seems to weigh on the debate.

Cliff answers bluntly.

More of this than I.

Well, it is used to say, and I saw it just yesterday by somebody I know in respect.

He's a former ambassador to a major country.

I won't mention his name, but he's a scholar.

And he said, well, there was no

imminent threat. Well, I think that's entirely, entirely irrelevant, whether it was imminent. First,

because even under the most creative interpretations of international law or just war theory,

there's no prohibition against addressing threats that aren't imminent. Second, there's

no agree upon definition of imminence. What I say in my column is, if your enemy picks up a pistol,

does that constitute an imminent threat, or do you have to wait until his finger is on the trigger,

by which time it may be too late to defend yourself?