American exceptionalism: A consequentialist attempt at justifying preventive war with Iraq

I start with an explanation of American exceptionalism and preventive war and their relationship with the Bush administration's justification for the war in Iraq. I then extract a possible consequentialist justification for exceptionalism and prevention from David Luban's article "Preventive War." The consequentialist justification is contrasted with a strict nonconsequentialist prohibition of preventive war given by Michael Walzer in Just War: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. While I suggest that there is an impassible divide between Luban's consequentialist justification and Walzer's nonconsequentialist prohibition, a bridge between consequentialist and nonconsequentialist thought on just war is built by taking a rule utilitarian approach. I argue that by taking such an approach, (1) consequentialists and nonconsequentialists are supplied with a practical solution to their major disagreements and (2) the possible consequentialist justification for preventive war taken from Luban is refuted.