The House of Commons recently held an impressive discussion of the Iraq War and how the UK became involved and, basically, how could such a massive screwup be permitted to take place.
Caroline Lucas: I thank the hon. Gentleman for making such a powerful speech, but when it comes to whether it is right or wrong to blame Bush and Blair, I think he is being a little too generous in his assessment of them. He is giving the impression that they were sitting waiting to hear what the evidence was, when it seems clear—certainly in the case of Bush and maybe in the case of Blair—that they had already made up their minds. They already had an agenda.
Rory Stewart: I am sure that much of that is true. I am not here to defend that decision—it was a terrible, catastrophic decision—but I think it is dangerous to put the whole blame simply on Blair and Bush, because the implication is that if we do not have Blair and Bush around, we will never get in these messes again. We will get in these messes again because we have not created the proper Government policy structures required to think these things through—not just to avoid the decision to invade, but above all to get out more rapidly once we have made a bad decision.
What Black is trying to get at is that the structure of government, the bureaucracy, didn’t work both in the decision to go to war and in the horrible fiasco of the occupation of Iraq. He makes an interesting point:
It is not good enough that not a single senior British diplomat formally recorded on paper their opposition to what was happening in Iraq. Many of those who were inside the system now say that they made private comments, that they were worried, but nobody, from the political director downwards, formally objected on paper to the Prime Minister.
That is not the case in the United States. In fact three senior diplomats formally objected on paper in their resignation letters.
To: Secretary of State Colin Powell
March 10, 2003
Dear Mr. Secretary:
I am joining my colleague John Brady Kiesling in submitting my resignation from the Foreign Service (effective immediately) because I cannot in good conscience support President Bush’s war plans against Iraq.
The president has failed:
–To explain clearly why our brave men and women in uniform should be ready to sacrifice their lives in a war on Iraq at this time;
–To lay out the full ramifications of this war, including the extent of innocent civilian casualties;
–To specify the economic costs of the war for ordinary Americans;
–To clarify how the war would help rid the world of terror;
–To take international public opinion against the war into serious consideration.
Throughout the globe the United States is becoming associated with the unjustified use of force. The president’s disregard for views in other nations, borne out by his neglect of public diplomacy, is giving birth to an anti-American century.
I joined the Foreign Service because I love our country. Respectfully, Mr. Secretary, I am now bringing this calling to a close, with a heavy heart but for the same reason that I embraced it.
Sincerely,
John H. Brown Foreign Service Officer
See also: this and this. But as another member of parliament says:
Those who sided with error saw their careers flourish, while those who were right and objected to their Ministries saw their careers wither.
In in that, the US has done more poorly than the UK because, Hillary Clinton, one of the most significant supporters of Bush’s Folly became Secretary of State in 2009. John Kerry , the new Secretary of State also supported it, but at least became a strong critic early in the occupation.
More generally, we have a system where in both government and corporation (including media), fitting in is more important than doing a good job. For example, the state department didn’t think it was important to hire people who could speak Arabic.
Neither the resignations nor significant protests slowed Bush’s march to war or made any difference to the clown-car occupation that Rumsfeld and Cheney inflicted on the unfortunate people of Iraq. The media and political establishment, amazingly, treated for example Ann Wright’s resignation from the State Department less seriously than they have treated the crackpot self-promotion of Ed Snowden.
On one level, the answer to Black’s question, in the US context is simple: elect Democrats but not DLC Democrats. Voting did what protests could not and took the US out of Iraq – and soon, out of Afghanistan. Under Obama, slowly, maddeningly slowly, the State Department and DOD have been incrementally improved. It’s going to take a generation of Obama Democrats to fix the damage though and its not clear we are going to get that.
krebscycle 
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