11. The Defense Monitor: Little Room in Politics for the Facts of the Matter
- Author:
- Philip E. Coyle, Rachel Stohl, Winslow Wheeler, Theresa Hitchens, Victoria Garcia, Colin Robinson, Krista Nelson, and Jeffrey Lewis
- Publication Date:
- 10-2003
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Defense Information
- Abstract:
- Few things are more routinely abused than facts when people in government — any party, any branch — set out to make a decision. I've been reminded of this truth watching the current administration parry revelations that it manipulated “facts” about weapons of mass destruction as a pretext for the war against Iraq that Congress authorized a year ago this past week. But I'd learned it the hard way much earlier. During a 31-year career as an evaluator for the General Accounting Office and a staffer for four different U.S. senators from both parties, I spent a lot of time trying to use facts to influence decisions made by the U.S. government. The facts took a beating all too often.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States and Iraq