(Why raise the bar that high all of a sudden?)
I wonder the same thing about CIA and DOJ (and frankly, even my local governments), and smile gleefully when they screw things up. I'm happy to see them be incompetent as often as is possible, because it means there's still some hope.
This stuff is HARD and getting it ALL CORRECT means living in a world I don't want to live in. So I always wonder about people who are critical of an inefficient police state.
Is that what you want?
I mean, to bring it back to the original context, Bush probably nixed the mission that was presented because of the political ramifications on the eve of his war. Isn't it good that we have leaders who are such knuckleheads? I'm all for it! Isn't it good that Clinton bombed an aspirin factory or whatever because he was distracted by getting impeached?
I mean, are you against pre-emption or not? Not that it matters: the only thing new about this open policy of pre-emption is the openness of it, since the US has always reserved (and exercised) that ability.
/jordan