A Groupthink Perspective On The Invasion Of Iraq

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As stated above, there are three antecedent conditions of groupthink: 1) group cohesiveness; 2) structural faults; and 3) provocative situational context. According to Janis, the most essential antecedent is group cohesiveness. This antecedent “implies a conventional understanding of the term as the ‘forces which are acting on members to stay in a group.’” (McQueen 55). Group Cohesiveness entails an assembly of decision makers, known as the “core group”. This specific group consisted of President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, NSC Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, VP Chief Aide Scooter Libby, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Undersecretary of Defense Policy Douglas J. Feith, CIA Director George …show more content…

The most significant of the structural faults is the absence of any organization. Alison McQueen, author of A Groupthink Perspective on the Invasion of Iraq, states “any group that is insulated from external influences, and lacks leader impartiality, procedural norms, and member heterogeneity has a strong likelihood to succumb to pressures for concurrence-seeking” (McQueen 56).When it came to the core groups goal to invade Iraq, they were never content with the intelligence they received when the information did justify their reasoning for their plans (Janis 197). After failed attempts to find reasons to invade Iraq, the Bush Administration began to doubt the Intelligence community. “The core group recognized the CIA’s failure…leading the group to look inward for information. Profound distrust led to increased discord between the decision-making team and the CIA when the former began relying heavily on its own members and excluding outside counsel from the intelligence community” (Badie …show more content…

George W. Bush was biased regarding Iraq and Saddam Hussein; it was no secret as to how Bush felt. With the previous incidents involving his father, President George H. Bush, and Saddam Hussein, it is no wonder Bush was eager to go to war with Iraq. The attack on the world trade centers, provided the perfect opportunity for the United States to go to war with Iraq. The only issue with the idea to go to war, was there was no concrete evidence or reasoning to go to invade Iraq. The Bush administration had a goal, and that was to go to war, and any information that got in their way was dismissed. If Bush was not bias towards Saddam Hussein and Iraq, the decision-makers process could have possibly turned out differently. This intergroup conflict and the lack of independent thinking in leadership provides evidence of the structural fault symptom in groupthink and its relation to the Iraq

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