September 3, 2007
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Decision Making in Slow Motion
I’ve been hearing about the Petraeus Report for months:
Administration officials said Mr. Bush wanted to hold face-to-face talks with General Petraeus and with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other top Iraqi leaders before completing a review of his Iraq strategy later this month and before General Petraeus and Mr. Crocker return to Washington next week to deliver their long-awaited assessment of conditions in Iraq.
And honestly I don’t get it. It seems like such a ’50s approach to information. Why isn’t the Petraeus Report a live website with streams of statistics provided in near-real-time and weekly assessments from Petraeus? Why isn’t the surge strategy being evaluated and updated every other Tuesday?
Of course, I understand why such a website isn’t public (though I think it ought to be). What I want to know is why isn’t on the administration intranet?
Posted September 3, 2007 at 11:17 | Comments (6) | Permasnark
File under: Briefly Noted, Snarkpolicy
File under: Briefly Noted, Snarkpolicy
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with streams of statistics provided in near-real-time
Doesn't this assume that the statistics are being collected in near-real time? While it's technically possible, we are still closer to the age of the clipboard and the weekly report filed after hours than we are to the age of tricorders.
Oh yeah, totally -- I just mean real-time like 'as soon as they are available.' Not 'hold on, let me just type this up for you... it will take six months... I'll write up a big giant report and fly to Washington to deliver it, okay?'
Why can't we just vote for the next troop operation by text message like on American Idol?
Seriously dude, there is some advantage to carefully planned and considered thought.
I'm not against careful planning and consideration. I'm against careful planning and consideration under a veil of secrecy and spin.
B/c when it's done that way there is no chance for us to double-check and confirm that it actually HAS been careful (and/or sincere)!
Amen to that. Sunshine has allowed us, decades later, to marvel at how poorly planned and executed secret White House, Pentagon, and CIA (especially CIA!) projects commonly are. Would've been nice to know that stuff a little more apropos.
Did anybody else read those letters back and forth between Paul Bremer and President Bush that Bremer gave to the NYT? Sheesh. I can't believe such important stuff was conducted in such a manner.
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