War on Iraq- Stillman

“The Decision to go to war with Iraq” (Pfiffner, 2009) is an analysis of the factors that led G. W. Bush and his administration to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein and his government. Pfiffner provides a short historic background explaining the reasons this decision was made. According to his essay these reasons relate closely to the G. H. W. Bush administration that in the 1990s decided against invading Iraq and overthrowing Hussein. Public officers, who were assigned in critical positions during the G. W. Bush administration, such as Rumsfield, Wolfowitz and Perle, were pushing a war agenda convinced that Iraq posed a major threat to the United States, previously during the Clinton administration (Pfiffner, 2009). Undoubtedly, trying to analyze this decision is a very difficult task. Complicating this task are several factors, including the individuals and agencies involved in the decision, which now is seen as erroneous and a failure of public administration. In the decision making the president, appointed officials and organizations such as the CIA were involved. The 9/11 terrorists attacks played a major role in the president’s decision to go to war with Iraq. It seems that after that incident G. W. Bush changed his mind and started believing that war was inevitable (Pfiffner, 2009). A good starting point would be to analyze the individuals involved that influenced the President and his decisions. There is no doubt that the appointed officials were given specific positions based on merit. They were experts in their discipline, had skill and experience. It is very interesting to observe that most of them fit perfectly the ideal public official based on the New Deal Era Theory. Like in the 1930s these officials were experienced, industry trained and had a very good university education (Morgan et al., 2008). The scientific and technical expertise, which is the base of the merit system, was present. This notion was evident and it did

References: Morgan Douglas F., Green, Richard, Shinn, Craig W., and Robinson, Kent S. 2008: Foundations of Public Service, Armonk, NY, M.E. Sharpe Stillman, Richard J. 2010. Public Administration: Concepts and Cases, 9th Ed., Boston Wadsworth.