Some Thoughts on ‘Groupthink’

In his July 12 commentary regarding “groupthink,” Robert Jervis asserts that “intelligence officials ... are on guard against groupthink” and that the dynamics of the CIA itself precludes the possibility of such happening. In his closing remarks he states that “another dynamic was at work in this case.” It would seem he is right on the mark. There was obviously from the top (White House) down a long-standing fixation on going to war with Iraq. If the Bush administration has ever been good at anything, it’s being a like-minded, tightknit group. Couple that with Cheney’s obsession with secrecy and the demonstrated ability of the administration to pull off top-secret operations of tremendous scope (the Thanksgiving photo op in Baghdad), it would not be a huge leap of imagination to see where the groupthink “virus” that infected the Iraqi intelligence originated. How clever to have a built-in “it’s not my fault” defense for Bush et al if the invasion failed to turn up WMD.

One thing is clear: If the Senate still needs to ascertain how the “mysterious” changes to the white paper were made, or ever hopes to get to the bottom of where the groupthink virus came from, this country needs to clean house.

Glenda Tamblyn

Northridge