Petreaus Allowed Right Wing Think Tanks to Set Up Shop at his Afghan Headquarters
This, for instance, is a doozy where I come from: In Monday’s Washington Post, Greg Jaffe reports that in Afghanistan,
And here I thought civilians in Washington were supposed to “listen to the generals.” Turns out, it sometimes worked the other way around. Tax dollars, I assume, were used to provide that office space and access to military aircraft to the same people who so brilliantly helped enmire us in two wars after 9/11; what could go wrong?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2012/11/12/paula-broadwell-downfall-of-a-great-man-blah-blah-blah/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/12/1160890/-Petreaus-Allowed-Right-Wing-Think-Tanks-to-Set-Up-Shop-at-his-Afghan-Headquarters
makes you wonder...........?
= new reply since forum marked as read
It appears that he may have been outed by his underlings. They like it better when their leader comes from within the agency and this guy was planted there with his own entourage, not a friendly move in the eyes of the agency folks.
Now if that's the case, it would seem that his role was to screw up Obama to see that he was a one trick pony, looks like the Rs are the one trick pony here though. Their strategy is pretty tell-tale after what we've seen over the past three terms, and I suspect they started their hostile takeover back with Ms Lewinsky.
I think he was placed there as a compromise given he was a major cheerleader for the wars and was in the driver's seat once he had those who came before him ousted. Lest we forget that shadow government thing that I'm sure didn't fade away with the slinking off of the W regime. They embedded enough moles upon their departure that it will be a long time before they are weeded out. These two appear to be part of the cabal. And remember, all the upper echelon operations in Iraq were housed in Sadam's castle while the countryfolk lived in bombed out squalor and still do.
It just stinks and I think that the president needs to start finding ways to see that some heads roll... and join the Council in The Hague so it will be a certainty.
For Selfishness!
If you place your cursor on the connecting lines, it tells you the relationship. I can't wait until they update the players in the Petraeus nightmare...
Ollie North and the penalties he paid for the Iran-Contra B.S.? Me thinks this will be like that. Again. 
- The sex thing gets them e.v.e.r.y. t.i.m.e.Sure - it didn't matter that Butters was almost decapitated by a ninja star - Cartman streaking across the stage was the worst thing ever to happen to the town!! Sometimes satire really does mirror real life.
I'm adding that term to my list! (if you don't mind)
Last edited Wed Nov 14, 2012, 09:55 PM - Edit history (1)
it was yesterday!
Surge of Think Tanks Blurs U.S. Policy Lines – Part 1
by Michael Flynn (director of IPS Right Web and the lead researcher of the Global Detention Project at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva
“…During his acceptance speech, titled "The Surge of Ideas", Petraeus lauded a number of neoconservative "scholars" associated with AEI, in particular "Team Kagan", for their work in preparing the intellectual ground work that led to the "surge" in Iraq….
…Three months earlier, in January, Petraeus offered a very similar speech about the "surge of ideas" during a talked organised by Kim Kagan's Institute for the Study of War (ISW)… During his ISW presentation, which was devoted largely to discussing U.S. military priorities in the greater Middle East, Petraeus argued that "far more important than the surge of 30,000 additional U.S. troops was the surge of ideas that helped us to employ those troops." He said that a number of think tank "heroes" like "Fred" and "Kim" were responsible for developing a "study and analysis that did indeed have a strategic impact unlike that of any other study or analysis that I can think of"…. claiming that their work "serendipitously" made its way into "the West Wing and ultimately even into the Oval Office…
…Petraeus's "surge of ideas" speech highlights an issue that has drawn increasing attention and criticism from commentators and foreign policy experts. In recent years, there has been a tendency for like-minded think tanks and military officers to jointly pursue policy objectives, sometimes in opposition to the stated preferences of the administration….
…Katulis points to Petraeus's support for the work of Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack of the centrist Brookings Institution. In a July 2007 article for the New York Times titled "A War We Might Just Win" - a "propaganda piece", says Katulis - the two analysts cited their military- sponsored tour in Iraq to claim that, as a result of the surge, "morale was high", the bad guys were on the run, and while the situation remained "grave", the military escalation merited continued congressional support….
…This "Petreaus Model" was updated late last year by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan….. Team members included the omnipresent Kagans, Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations, Anthony Cordesman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Andrew Exum of the Centre for a New American Security (CNAS), and Jeremy Shapiro of the Brookings Institution….”
