In [stmt.while], we say:

A while statement whose condition is an initialized declaration of some variable t is equivalent to

label:
{
  condition ;
  if (t) {
    statement
    goto label;
  }
}

But fail to give any rewrite rule for the other kind of while statement. The result is both redundant and underspecified.

We could replace this with:

A while statement is equivalent to

label:
if (condition) {
  statement
  goto label;
}

... and make the wording simpler, less redundant, and more complete.

(Open question: is it useful to retain the braces around the outside of the if-statement in order to make it obvious that an else cannot bind to a while?)