Interesting post from Nick Barlow on the possible role of what psychologists call ‘group think’ in the ill-thought out planning of this war. Of particular interest is the article from Slate on how the pre-battle wargames were interfered with after the ‘enemy’ planner adopted the kind of canny, underhand, unethical approach we have seen from the Iraqis. Seems they wanted opponents who play fair. Nick gives some good examples of possible group think mentality in quotes from US officials but I am not sure the statements of David Blunkett and Clare Short really tell us much — they were hardly key players in the planning.
If there was groupthink on the UK side then perhaps it was the naive belief that the US military had somehow become reliable and competent.
