Yes, of course there are huge blunders in war, and of course the Civil War and reconstruction both had their share of disastrous blunders.

My point is that I want to know more about my nation’s policy regarding torture. I will cut my leader a great deal of slack on this so long as I know that the policy is well thought-out and can clearly guide us past the unacceptable extremes of torturing innocents and not getting needed information from terrorists or their sympathizers who have such info.

This is not the same as a battlefield screw-up like Gallipoli or Fredericksburg or the Wildnerness. These are policy decisions that should be clearly articulated to the nation. I’ve yet to hear anything like an intelligent discussion of same from Bush.

Again, not enough to cause me not to vote for him, but terribly important nonetheless, and troubling for the lack thereof.