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In reply to the discussion: Your Ignorance is not as Good; Or, You Don't Know Fuck-All About Syria [View all]JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Which means, now after 4+ years, the process is again run by the career civil servants, the vast majority of whom are not politically motivated. And over that time, the folks who were politically motivated lost their power.
He's told me that there have always been some who do bring their own personal politics into it, and that at times, might "work for them" for a period ... but the benefit they obtained would be short lived because they'd get a reputation based on their lack of objectivity. and they'd be wrong more frequently. And they'd lose respect and influence.
My friend's view is that the folks who "played the game" under Bush, those who remain, are now frequently marginalized, and their input is looked at with far greater skepticism. And, they don't have anywhere near the influence they had under Bush.
Under Bush, the process had changed such that a team Cheney put together basically drafted the report even before the analysis was being brought forward from the actual analysts. That group's and their outline was used to filter what came in and where it went in the briefs.
That's not the case now. With the change of the administrations, that group went away. It had not existed before Bush, and it's gone after. There has always been an element of the political side "watching" but that's more so they aren't blindsided, not so they can direct things.
In his view, another reason the analysts work to be objective and accurate is that the DOD, DOE, Petnagon, CIA, etc ... all want to be RIGHT. Its not just about having your view appear first and most prominent, ultimately, its about being RIGHT.
So if you're section has been wrong over and over, which is true for the folks who use politics as their guide, particularly under Bush, your assessments don't carry much weight now.
So there is a concern here that some of those folks are still running around ... absolutely. But, the career civil servants and analysts know they exist. They know who they are. So even if these folks try to push some agenda, they have to do so against all of the others, who's knowledge, expertise, and information is no longer filtered out.