Essential "Global Test" Response

The Quote:

No president, though all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America. But if and when you do it, Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.

The Response:

By 'global test', I clearly meant  the 'universal test'. I was talking about the test that every leader faces when he seeks to send his country's young men and women into harms way: the test to tell the truth about why they're going there.