“Outlining the post-9/11 international situation, the [September 17] 2002 NSS [National Security Strategy] equated terrorists with tyrants as sources of danger. It argued that given these dangers, the Cold War strategies of containment and deterrence were obsolete, overtaken by events. The White House said, ‘Given the goals of rogue states and terrorists the United States can no longer solely rely on a reactive posture as we have in the past. The inability to deter a potential attacker, the immediacy of today’s threats, and the magnitude of potential harm that could be caused by our adversaries’ choice of weapons, do not permit that option. We cannot let our enemies strike first.’ ”
– Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone, Page 143