"[W]e cannot wait to act until the threat is imminent"

    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? If this threat is permitted to fully and 
    suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all 
    recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity
    and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it 
    is not an option.

    [The President] did not make a persuasive case that the 
    threat is imminent and that war is the only alternative

    THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS; Bush Calls Iraq Imminent Threat

    Numerous Democrats, including Sens. Kennedy and John 
    Kerry, originally opposed the resolution authorizing the 
    use of force precisely because it wasn't hinged on an 
    imminent threat... Sen. Robert Byrd (D., Va.) even offered
    an amendment requiring that imminence become the standard 
    for war. After a debate, he lost.

    In other words, Kennedy & Co. objected to the war because 
    Bush wouldn't say the threat was imminent and now they're 
    peeved because Bush "lied" when he said the threat was 
    imminent.

    [H]ere you have it a nutshell. The administration was 
    criticized before the war for not making a case that Iraq 
    was an imminent threat, denied at that time that war was 
    based on the supposition of an imminent threat, and was 
    criticized after the war for having lied that Iraq was an 
    imminent threat.