Speech: Al Gore

Al Gore gave a recent speech to MoveOn.org that echoes many of the observations by Kwiatkowski. One of his main points is a lack of checks and balances towards the executive branch. In short, he claims that a groupthink (to use Kwiatkowski's language) has maintained dominance over policy formation, excluding the entirety of information at hand and a healthy discussion of policy. I also can't help but see further parallels with the Johnson administrations policy that sucked us into the Vietnam war without full consideration of the facts at hand and the consequences of policy decisions. I highly recommend an account of this by H.R. McMaster in "Dereliction of Duty". It shows just how far an administration may go to maintain its ideology in the face of evidence that would dictate otherwise. It also shows how both the Congress and the American people were left out of the decision making process leading to Vietnam.