Nekim američkim think tank-ovima čovječanstvo doista može biti zahvalno (recimo, RAND je svojim preporukama i savjetima u ranim 60-im godinama prošlog stoljeća odigrao važnu ulogu u stvaranju Interneta), ali neki drugi (recimo PNAC) su stabilan izvor loših savjeta. Nažalost, upravo PNAC je danas think tank s najviše utjecaja u Bijeloj kući.
U takvoj situaciji čini se bitnim ponovo utvrditi značenje pojma think tank. Jučer sam jučer naišao na ove riječi Billa Mahera, koje ne utvrđuju što think tank jest, nego što nije:
And finally, I propose a new rule in two parts:
- You can’t call yourself a think tank if all your ideas are stupid; and
- If you’re someone from one of these think tanks that dreamed up the Iraq War and who predicted that we’d be greeted as liberators, and that we wouldn’t need a lot of troops, and that Iraqi oil would pay for the war, that the WMD’s would be found, that the looting wasn’t problematic, that the mission was accomplished, that the insurgency was in its last throes, that things would get better after the people voted, after the government was formed, after we got Saddam, after we got his kids, after we got Zarqawi, and that whole bloody mess wouldn’t turn into a civil war, you have to stop making predictions.