>>I'll keep it short...
>>
>>"...grave and gathering..." was urgent enough in the President's mind that he went to war without his coalition.
>
>President Bush made the "grave and gathering" comment to the U.N. in September 2002. The coalition went to war 6 months later. Is that your definition of imminent? 6 months later?

That it took 6 months to do the preparatory work, including working feverishly to get a second resolution through the U.N. as well as transporting troops/munitions/equipment, indicates to me that it was, ideed, considered "imminent".
Using the 'overhead' of warring as proof of non-imminence is a bit awkward, don't you think?

>
>And despite what you may have read in the LA Times or NY Times, there was a coalition. Here is a list of some of the countries that supported us:
>
>Great Britain
>Australia
>Poland
>Spain
>Kuwait
>Saudia Arabia

Well just look at how the British PEOPLE have reacted through the whole thing. And Kuwait and Saudi Arabia really had no choice. That sum total of the "coalition" was far far less than what people originally took President Bush to mean. Eventually it degenerated into "coalition of the willing", many of whom were bought and paid for.

>
>>"...real and present..." sure has me interpreting "present" as even closer in that 'imminent' - NOW!
>
>As I wrote earlier, the Soviet Union was a real and present danger during the Cold War, but not an imminent threat. North Korea is a real and present danger NOW, but not an imminent threat. No matter how you or the LA Times try twist the words, they aren't what you say they are.

So the DEW line and NORAD were built/maintained at great expense as a government work project??? "DEW" stood for "distant early warning", which one can figure wouldn't at all have been needed were it not for the imminence of a danger.

>
>>Finally, both the President and his henchpersons spoke far more often than 2 times and imminence was a theme very often.
>
>And yet no one can provide any proof that anyone in the administration said anything like imminent. I have provided the links to the full text of the 2 most important speeches President Bush made on the subject. Where is your proof?

It is impossible to enlighten a mind that is made up and closed shut. Most of the people of the world, including those in the U.S., are perfectly comfortable in their belief that President Bush and his administrative officers repeated FREQUENTLY that the Iraq situation was critical and warranted war. I wonder how a war starts if not for 'imminent threat' whether real or imagined?????

cheers