Kind of like a pre-emptive strike, eh?
Possibly. The end results were similar to the pre-emptive strike by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. Four years later both the Confederacy and Japan were reduce to smoldering ruins. American Officers ruled, American soldiers policed the streets, controlled the economies, dictated the political structure. When one choses to make war on the United States, we have the ability to give them a belly full of war. Yep, pre-emptive strikes are a very smart course of action.