Dear Editor-

In his Monday speech, Attorney General Eric H. Holder addressed the Obama administration's targeted drone strikes noting that "In this hour of danger, we simply cannot afford to wait until deadly plans are carried out - and we will not" (Editorial Release the drone memos March 6). The referenced "hour" of danger seems inordinately long and drawn out considering that it is now well over ten years since Osama bin Laden's successful surprise attack. With no end in sight, the U.S. continues enormous investment in intelligence for the prevention of similar surprises, a lesson you hope we could have learned once alone from Pearl Harbor. So, why now do we continue to possess so little confidence in our current defense capabilities? And why do we feel the need to rely on continued extra-legal special exemption pre-emptive strikes? Has all our blood and treasure over the last ten years really been totally for naught? Is our posture of national fear, profitable to a select few, to persist permanently? By all appearances, it certainly seems so.