Google rushing out Android 4 "Ice Cream Sandwich" to counter iPhone 5

Hopefully Google learned their lesson with Honeycomb and its futile attempt to beat the iPad 2 to market. The iPhone 5 is going to have massive sales and publicity no matter what; it's not worth rushing ICS.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what is the point of this? Why sacrifice the public perception and stability of your project in order to duke it out with a polished release from your competitor?

I like how they point out that they are rushing the ice cream sandwitch.

The fact is that android is on a 6 month release circle. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history, the latest phone version bump was on 6 December 2010, and for tablets the initial release was on 22 February 2011. If you ask me, it's not rushing, they're late.

Applesinsider.com reports that Google is rushing their next mobile OS while Apple is waiting and not rushing their next mobile OS.

Rushing? What could possibly go wrong?