“On August 21 [2002], [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld visited [President] Bush at his Crawford [Texas] ranch to discuss a range of military issues. In a brief appearance before the press afterward, the president complained that the media seemed to be focusing on the possibility of military action in Iraq. There was, he said, too much ‘churning’ about the subject. Rumsfeld agreed. There seemed to be some kind of media ‘frenzy.’ All the activity at CENTCOM [Central Command], Bush said, merely involved contingency planning and no decision to go to war had been made. Eight days later, Bush signed the classified statement of objectives for the Iraq mission [entitled ‘President Discusses Security and Defense Issues’].”
– Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II, Page 84