The Mahablog: Reluctance

Paul Krugman wrote today,

America's founders knew all too well how war appeals to the vanity of rulers and their thirst for glory. That's why they took care to deny presidents the kingly privilege of making war at their own discretion.

But after 9/11 President Bush, with obvious relish, declared himself a "war president." And he kept the nation focused on martial matters by morphing the pursuit of Al Qaeda into a war against Saddam Hussein.

In November 2002, Helen Thomas, the veteran White House correspondent, told an audience, "I have never covered a president who actually wanted to go to war" - but she made it clear that Mr. Bush was the exception. And she was right.

And we've learned from Richard Clarke and Paul O'Neill and the Downing Street Memos that the Bushies were so eager to go to war with Iraq that they manufactured the casus belli out of thin air.

No, not reluctant at all.