John Sarbanes: “The Senator spoke earlier about the preemption doctrine the administration has put forward. Would the Senator agree that…”

“The Senator spoke earlier about the preemption doctrine the administration has put forward. Would the Senator agree that one of the dangers with the enunciation of that doctrine and the path the administration has now been pursuing-- which is to assert that they may take unilateral action instead of trying to work in a cooperative way through international bodies--is that it will set a precedent for other countries around the world to pursue the same course? After all, here is the predominant superpower asserting a doctrine of preemption, apparently prepared to go the unilateral path. What is then in the future to prevent some other regional power that asserts that it is confronted with some danger, from some neighbor, from pursuing the same path? Are we not in the process of setting a very dangerous precedent on the international scene in terms of maintaining international peace?”