Clarify your position with respect to the preemptive or preventive use of military force in combatting terrorism.

The sources of threats to our security include rogue states and stateless groups or individuals. Situations often facing the President are very difficult to assess as to their imminense or seriousness. As he has recently pointed out, he may be faced with trade-offs between conflicting objectives, such as safeguarding our troops versus ensuring the public's right to be well informed (the recent AP controvercy). Nevertheless, there are many who fail to understand the difficulties he often confronts in seeking the best balance between conflicting objectives. Perhaps an even larger number do not appreciate that such decision-making under extreme time compression and uncertainty basically involves balancing potential errors of action with errors of inaction. The president must clarify.