Blame and Responsibility Within the Intelligence Community (Essay Sample)

BLAME AND RESPONSIBILITY WITHIN THE IC
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Blame and Responsibility within the IC
The US government has gone through enough crises to learn from its mistakes over the years. However, this is not always the case due to intelligence failures and poor response mechanisms. From the attacks at Pearl Harbor in 1941 to the Insurrection of the capital in 2021, the Intelligence Committee has continuously displayed flaws in strategy and operations. Nonetheless, the responsibility to prevent and effectively manage any crisis ultimately falls on the Intelligence committee.
Seasoned analysts and governments take the time to learn from past failures by their predecessors. Contrary to this principle, the IC did not respond effectively to the Insurrection of the Capital in DC on January 6th, 2021. The authorities had received numerous warnings around the protests but they responded poorly. Governments need sense-making, coordinating, and meaning-making to develop an effective response strategy. In my opinion, the IC did not follow the three tasks. Hence insights on imminent threat were received but not acted upon, which supports George and Bruce’s argument on the value of insight, forecasting, and judgment calls. Then-president Trump can be blamed for instigating the wild protests in his pursuit of power just like the pro-trump rioters can be blamed for their actions but the IC could have prevented and even responded better.[Paul ‘T Hart, Karen Tindall, and Christer Brown, "Crisis Leadership of the Bush Presidency: Advisory Capacity and Presidential Performance in the Acute Stages of the 9/11 and Katrina Crises," Presidential Studies Quarterly 39, no. 3 (2009): 2] [Roger Z. George and James B. Bruce, Analyzing Intelligence: National Security Practitioners' Perspectives (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2014), pdf, 2.]
Blame over the Kabul, Afghanistan withdrawal crisis can be shifted from Afghan leaders, Democrats to republicans, and back to the US people. I strongly feel that Biden did the right thing for putting the decade’s long war to an end. However, both US citizens and Afghanistan citizens are entitled to their different opinions in the post-crisis phase. Questions on whether a crisis was a single incident or an indicator of structural failure are expected. Biden’s claims that he acted for the good of the people won him people’s support just as Leary, Pillemner, and Wheeler argued that using emotions can lead to constructive engagement from people who would otherwise oppose. Ultimately, both US and Afghan governments are to blame in line with Hart, Heyse, and Boin claim that national policymakers no longer get away with blaming foreigners. Blame for the inter-governmental crisis falls squarely on Afghans and the US.[Arjen Boin Et Al., "Leadership Style, Crisis Response and Blame Management: The Case of Hurricane Katrina," Public Administration 88, no. 3 (2010): xx, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2010.01836.2.] [. Kimberlyn Leary, Julianna Pillemner, and Michael Wheeler, "Negotiating with emotions; High stakes deal-making is fraught with feeling. Should we ignore that?" Harvard Business Review, 2013,5.] [Paul’t Hart, Liesbet Heyse, and Arjen Boin, "New Trends in Crisis Management Practice and Crisis Management Research: Setting the Agenda," Journal of contingencies and crisis management 9, no. 4 (2001): xx, doi:10.1111/1468-5973.00168.4.]
The United States has been in many conflicts over the years. Who to