The sin was not in the planning but in the execution (and possibly the motives)

Several bloggers have been making a big deal out of this morning's report that Bush asked Rumsfeld to start planning the Iraq invasion even before major combat operations finished in Afghanistan. They are talking about this as if it were some kind of shocking revelation.

Actually, I would be shocked if Bush hadn't asked for Rumsfeld to start planning the invasion. After all, if you are establishing a policy which could eventually result in the invasion of another country it would be nice to take as many months as are available to plan it out ahead of time. If Bush had waited until January 2003 to initiate war planning procedures then that would be shocking negligence.

Bush is most certainly worthy of criticism, but it is important that we criticize him for the things for which he is deserving criticism. Starting the planning for the invasion is not one of them.

Fucking it up so badly is!