Neocon FRED KAGAN Hired by Team Obama

[Phillip Walker]

Release the Kagan: Neocon Nabob Hired by Team Obama
Wednesday, 18 August 2010 13:21

Buried many fathoms deep in an LA Times story about the latest American scolding of its unruly satrap in Bactria, we find this little nugget:

Some senior officials are saying privately that they fear their reliance on the Karzai administration could be the weakest link of their strategy to stabilize the country. Government corruption is seen as one of the most important factors driving ordinary Afghans to support the Taliban. ...

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the newly appointed head of the international forces in the country, has hired two experts known for their strong emphasis on fighting corruption, Frederick Kagan and Brig. Gen. H.R. McMaster.


That's right; Frederick Kagan, the neocon architect of the Iraq "surge," the epitome of the armchair warriors who have sent thousands of human beings (including their fellow Americans) to needless death and plunged millions more into needless suffering, has been hired by the Peace Laureate Administration to serve as guide and counsel to the Laureate's newly appointed military supremo.

It goes without saying that Kagan -- yet another spawn of the Project for a New American Century, that gaggle of bloodthirsty Beltwayers who openly longed, in September 2000, for a "new Pearl Harbor" to scare the American public into supporting the group's hyper-militarist agenda -- is not an expert on "fighting corruption" or on Afghanistan, just as he knew nothing about Iraq. He is an "expert" on one topic only: churning out bullshit to justify war. And that is exactly why he has been hired by Obama and Petraeus.

...

http://www.chris-floyd.com/articles/1-latest-news/2007-release-the-kagan-arch-neocon-nabob-hired-by-team-obama.html#comments

[Me.]

1. What Planet Am I Living On?

:crazy:

Welcome to DU, good start.

[EFerrari]

59. The Pentagon and the State Department

need to be fumigated. Negroponte is still "advising" Clinton.

It is dizzying.

[JohnnyBoots]

113. 'Death Squad John' is always a crowd pleaser...

...and by crowd I mean the MIC and whichever party the nefarious puppet masters let be the figure head this round.

[EFerrari]

114. Gore Vidal's term, "our owners" is pretty efficient.

:)

[peace frog]

67. Team Obama keeps on hitting them out of ballpark,

don't they just. :crazy:

[mmonk]

2. Thanks. Good post.

[msongs]

3. it's all part of the Kumbaya strategy - war is peace, dead civilians are really not... dead etc nt

[butterfly77]

4. I know damn well

they could have found some other than that asshole I just heard David gergen and another neocon on ac360 talking about how the pres should have more neocons in his cabinet and I say FOR WHAT! more sabatoge or maybe he will use them in someway ...

[Canuckistanian]

5. A signatory to PNAC

And a warmonger's warmonger.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Frederick_Kagan

Matthew Yglesias commented October 25, 2006, on what he calls the "Shorter Fred Kagan": "We've screwed up so much, so badly in Iraq that we can ill-afford to stop screwing up."

[Phillip Walker]

12. Here's more war talk from Fred

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/226851/planning-victory-afghanistan/frederick-w-kagan

[maryf]

25. makes me dizzy...

and cold...
:scared:

[Subdivisions]

49. Another POS still given relevance. Sigh. n/t

[AlbertCat]

81. Indeed. WHAT do you have to do to be a failure these days????

Because being utterly and repeatedly WRONG and causing untold and expensive damage seems not to be the thing.

[kentuck]

6. He needs to fire Petraeus and tell him to take Kagan with him.

He is a war-mongering nut. He only imagines shots fired in anger, he was never so fortunate as to actually see them.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Dinger]

8. Fuckin' A

Run Dean Run!:patriot:

[Booster]

9. Do a good thing and then turn around and do something stupid,

[QC]

10. !

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jgraz]

13. Don't worry, I'm sure Obama will hire an equally rabid leftie to balance his team.

Right?

[QC]

16. Actually, this is a brilliant chess move that will totally discredit Neo-Conservatism,

when it call comes together, as it surely will.

[Lost4words]

23. Yea right, all part of the Master Plan, I dont think so,.... nt

[HereSince1628]

84. Multiple dimensional chess has become the theory FOR everything.

Consequently it has become the theory that explains nothing.

I know where my problem lies...This administration believes voters are distributed left to right as a bell-shaped curve. And I have trouble being convinced of the existance of that the GREAT MODERATE MIDDLE that the 'pragmatists' keep telling us they are representing. Methinks voters are distributed in a bimodal fashion with kurtosis to both the right and left.

[liberation]

89. Every passing day it is clear Obama et al are playing 1 dimensional checkers...

... and badly as if that somehow was possible.

[SnakeEyes]

98. How?

I don't follow

[QC]

105. Just have faith--it will all fall into place in due time! n/t

[Dr.Phool]

61. He'll hold a seance and hire Paul Wellstone.

That's about as close as we'll get.

[bobbolink]

112. Oh, goddess, if only!

:cry: for Wellstone :patriot:

[Kalyke]

14. Welcome...

[anaxarchos]

15. This is really something...

Old Fred is not only one of the worst around, but he is at the center of a nest vipers extending to his pop, Don, another PNAC type, and his wife Kim, and maybe even to his dog and his goldfish. All are worth googling.

To get to somebody more disgusting, you would have to consider Rummy.

Just when you think they have created a new, "ultimate outrage", they surprise you.

[glitch]

20. " To get to somebody more disgusting, you would have to consider Rummy." lol

Cheney is no longer employable, George is retired and Jeb is apparently otherwise occupied...

[another saigon]

37. eww, he has a wife???

:puke:

[JoseGaspar]

46. Good family values.

[mike r]

17. Great find!

[lib2DaBone]

18. Wow.. I get a bad feeling from this..

Gen Patreus is the darling of the Neocons.

He already has Mr. Obama's ear, telling him that a strike on Iran will be a 10 day conflict.. a cake-walk... a "mission Accomplished".

[glinda]

73. Only a fool would think that Iran is not looking at Iraq right now.

Makes me wonder how many countries are watching this with the withdrawal and all.

[yellowwood]

19. Neocons

Very disturbing. The neocons ran the last Administration. That's why we'e in the trouble we're in.

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. New Boss....

:silly:

[Name removed]

70. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[maryf]

21. K&R

and welcome to DU...

[Lost4words]

22. OMG Un fricking real!

aparently BHO had no problem with the 8 years of Bush and unabashed NeoCons!

Our president really is a uniter, uniting the worst of Bush & Clinton!

:banghead:

[Oilwellian]

27. But, but, but....

Obama's policies are NOTHING like George Bush's. :eyes:

[SammyWinstonJack]

34. Except for WHEN they ARE!

:thumbsup:

[another saigon]

44. no they are not " like" bushco policies

They ARE bushco policies with better oratory skills.

[LWolf]

57. +1

[another saigon]

74. thanks

my first rec evah!

:)

[maryf]

100. good choice

to be your first. Welcome to DU!

[sendero]

96. Exactly.

... except most of the time. In Obama's world, if you are a banker or a warmonger who's bad judgement has made a cock-up of everything, we have a place for you at the table.

All those criticisers can go to hell.

[JanMichael]

99. Totally and sickenly real.

It was over before it got started in regard to some non-Bush/Reagan administration.

[tnlefty]

26. Welcome to DU!

Pardon me while I go :puke:

[w8liftinglady]

28. Kagan-from Sourcewatch.Hmmm..I still say..."watch Iran"

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Frederick_Kagan

Kagan was a signatory to the January 28, 2005, Project for the New American Century letter to Congress calling for "Increasing U.S. Ground Forces" in Iraq. He was also a signatory to a September 20, 2001, "open letter" in which the PNAC urged President Bush "that the war on terrorism include the removal of Iraqi president Saddam Hussain 'even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the < 9/11 > attack.'" <5>

Kagan is the brother to foreign policy analyst Robert Kagan, "also a scholar," who was a "founding member of the Project for the New American Century. With fellow PNAC founder Bill Kristol, Robert wrote the 1998 New York Times article 'Bombing Iraq isn't Enough' that asserted: <6>

"If Mr. Clinton is serious about protecting us and our allies from Iraqi biological and chemical weapons, he will order ground forces to the gulf. Four heavy divisions and two airborne divisions are available for deployment. The President should act, and Congress should support him in the only policy that can succeed."
Kagan is the son of Donald Kagan, who is a professor at Yale and a fellow at the Hudson Institute. Frederick, Robert, who is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, and their father Donald are "all signatories to the neoconservative Project for the New American Century manifesto titled Rebuilding America's Defenses (2000)." <7>

[defendandprotect]

47. Right, PNAC tried to push Bill Clinton into attacking Iraq after first faked attack

on WTC --

And I'm sure they're still after "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran!" ---

[howaboutme]

29. As an average member of what has become the American underclass

I'm beginning to feel grossly underrepresented by the Presidential administration that I supported and voted for. We surely don't need any more AEI/PNAC neocons in high level positions making decisions.

[Steely_Dan]

30. Let's See....

It's been about three days since the last outrage. Yep, right on schedule.

[LWolf]

58. Imagine a president who didn't spend his time and capital outraging

large contingents of people who helped elect him.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

31. Someone posted yesterday about PNAC, I was going to do a look see if any were working for Obama.

Here's one, and I'm not surprised or disappointed. This is just the status quo.

[w8liftinglady]

32. That was me...it is still in action-under a different name.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8965362

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

43. That was a great thread and should be clicked on. Yes, it was changed to AEI.

Thanks! :hi:

PS...when I first came to DU, I created and participated in many threads about PNAC. I still wonder how many low profile people involved are still in the Pentagon.

[w8liftinglady]

66. That's a great point-I am still researching it...

[saracat]

40. Robert Gibbs, if my memory serves correctly is also one.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

42. I can't find Gibbs attached to it. His career would have had nothing to do with

foreign policy. He was a press secretary and campaigner. What he did do was assist to destroy Howard Dean's campaign when he worked for Kerry in 2004.

[saracat]

53. I will try to find the connection. I just read it recently. I also posted about Dennis Ross. I am

sure there are more.

[saracat]

52. Dennis Ross at the State dept is PNAC

[Subdivisions]

54. What the fuck is he doing working for this administration?

:mad:

[saracat]

55. They appointed him??????

I assume they support him, otherwise why would he be working for them? :-(

[gratuitous]

33. All right, everybody line up for your drug tests

Ladies on the right, gents on the left, you know the routine. The pee narcs will have their pound of flesh, so to speak.

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. ...

:spray:

[KoKo]

85. OMG! Has it come to this? I worry about this post.......

Troll or Real?

Sheesh!

[gratuitous]

111. Why wouldn't this be real?

After all, the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs himself has stated that Democrats who question the wisdom of anything done by the Obama administration should be drug tested. I'm sure there's a Very Good Reason the administration needs the advice of Mr. Kagan, and anyone who gets all preoccupied with Kagan's record and history is just begging for their turn to pee in a bottle.

[Renew Deal]

36. It looks like Gates read an article of Kagans where Kagan says he "the policy of Obama is sound."

From an NPR interview:

Mr. KAPLAN: That's right. Early on in the Obama administration, he said at his own confirmation hearings, that he would be very skeptical of requests for a large number of extra troops in Afghanistan. You know, one of the most searing experiences in his own career was a deputy director of the CIA, watching the Soviet empire collapse in the quagmire of Afghanistan.

He said if it looks we are an occupying force then we will go the way of other imperial occupiers. That summer - the summer of 2009 - he started reading a lot of articles, one of which was a piece in the Weekly Standard by Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute, which made the case that we are not like the Soviets in Afghanistan. The Soviets killed about a million people, forced five million into exile, basically destroyed the country. We're not into that.

At the same time, Gates had just hired Stanley McChrystal, who was talking about counterinsurgency, protecting the population. And so by the time President Obama starts these senior National Security Council meetings on what to do in Afghanistan, Gates had shifted ground. Gates had become an advocate of sending a lot more troops.

And I speculate - and it can only be speculation - that if he had retained the skepticism that he'd had earlier that year, it's quite possible that the consensus would have leaned toward a smaller footprint and a less ambitious strategy.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129247826

A Winnable War

Success in Afghanistan is possible. The policy that President Obama announced in December and firmly reiterated last week is sound. So is the strategy that General Stanley McChrystal devised last summer and has been implementing this year. There have been setbacks and disappointments during this campaign, and adjustments will likely be necessary. These are inescapable in war. Success is not by any means inevitable. Enemies adapt and spoilers spoil. But both panic and despair are premature. The coalition has made significant military progress against the Taliban, and will make more progress as the last surge forces arrive in August. Although military progress is insufficient by itself to resolve the conflict, it is a vital precondition. As the New York Times editors recently noted, "Until the insurgents are genuinely bloodied, they will keep insisting on a full restoration of their repressive power." General David Petraeus knows how to bloody insurgents--and he also knows how to support and encourage political development and conflict resolution. He takes over the mission with the renewed support of the White House.
<snip>

http://www.aei.org/article/102237

It seems that Gates is impressed with Kagan. Kagan does seem knowledgable. Check his Wikipedia page. He's got heavy duty credentials.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Kagan

[w8liftinglady]

38. kicking-turds floating to the top again..

[femrap]

39. Kagan's assignment:

Israel attacks Iran. IOW, WW3

[xultar]

41. rofl

[defendandprotect]

45. .... too many connections to PNAC still around ... though didn't they also change their name???

PNAC and anyone and any organization connected to them should be nowhere near

the administration or Dem Party!!

[johnaries]

48. How did "hired by Petraeus" become "hired by Obama and

Petraeus" and then become "hired by Team Obama"?

I'm getting dizzy from all the spin.

[Subdivisions]

51. Umm... do you know what this means: CIC. n/t

[johnaries]

65. Yes, I also know that the good ones don't micromanage. nt

[frylock]

79. nah, they just let shit kinda sort itself out..

we're into 5 dimensional chess now baybee!!1

proud member of the real fucking progressives.

[rhett o rick]

83. How do you know that? And who is saying it is micromanaging? You? Of course.

Please come back when you have a real argument supporting your stand(?).

[rhett o rick]

82. So are you saying that you believe that he was hired against the Pres wishes?

No, you actually arent saying anything, just getting dizzy.

[Subdivisions]

50. There are some very prominent names that are conspicuously missing from this thread...

Where are you? No comment?

[laughingliberal]

56. K & R *sigh* nt

[LWolf]

60. Welcome to DU.

Watch out for in-coming drones from the message police. :nuke:

[Dr.Phool]

62. More change we can make believe in.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Color me disgusted.

[Frisbee]

63. It's an honest mistake...

he thinks it's Elena's husband. I'm sure he'll fire him when he figures out it's not.

[fascisthunter]

64. disgraceful... Legitimizing Neo-Cons by giving them positions of Power

absolutely disgusting.

[tiredtoo]

69. For What It's Worth

Morning Joe said."The way to stop this war mongering attitude in America is start the draft."

[Jakes Progress]

68. This is what kills voter turn-out.

When I was pounding the streets and knocking on doors for Obama, the most common excuse I heard for not voting was that it didn't make a difference, that all those people in Washington were in it together. Like a silly sheep, I told them that this was different, that we had a candidate who was going to change the way Washington did things. I guess you can imagine how embarrassed I would be to visit those homes again. So I guess it is a good thing that gibbs has told me that Obama won't be wanting any of my help this time around.

[Ignis]

71. K&R and welcome to DU.

This thread is like kryptonite to some. :thumbsup:

[Lorien]

76. And notice that they have nothing to say on this issue

sometimes there's something SO indefensible that even they can't spin it.

[Ignis]

77. There was one half-hearted attempt upthread, but ...

Thankfully, defending PNAC is still a losing proposition at DU. :patriot:

[liberation]

86. They haven't had enough time to get the talking points for this one...

... I take they were expecting people to not notice, but give them due time for the DLC friendly reps to let us know how a) we really don't know how the real world works, b) how this is a non-issue and c) how pointing out the hypocrisy of Obama hiring one of the main architect's of the neo-con agenda is somehow going to make republicans regain power and start killing kittens left and right.

[Ignis]

88. Oh crap, I didn't know about the kittens. I'd better clap harder.

:(

[liberation]

90. Clapping alone won't appease the moderate conservative gods, you also must smile harder

and make sure those pompoms reach supersonic spin speeds!

Hurry up, a kitten just met his maker. You soulless pinko commie bastard! ;-)

[Ignis]

91. NoooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo!

[QC]

110. Please, think of the kittens! n/t

[YOY]

94. The same who want us to believe we are done with Iraq and our troops all gone.

The same people who would accept "contractors"="mercenaries" from one party would accept "Soldiers"="Military Advisors" from another.

[Ignis]

95. Perhaps we should call it The War for Embassy Expansion?

[Enthusiast]

72. Well at least Frederick Kagan

isn't professional left.

[democrank]

75. President Obama`s "change" program is getting comical

change...Make different, cause a transformation

[Karenina]

78. Not. good.

:thumbsdown:

[yellowwood]

80. More about Fred

http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Kagan_Frederick
Frederick Kagan is a resident scholar at the neoconservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).<1> A foreign policy hawk who is known for his work shaping the 2007 Iraq “surge,” Kagan has authored a number of books and reports promoting long-term U.S. military intervention in the Middle East and elsewhere. Kagan’s brother (Robert), father (Donald), and wife (Kimberly) are also known for their militarist stances on U.S. foreign policy.
In 2009, Kagan and his wife were tagged to a serve on a controversial civilian “strategic assessment” team that was hand-picked by Gen. Stanley McChrystal to provide advice on the course of the war in Afghanistan. Many critics pointed out, however, that the team was composed largely of people who agreed with McChrystal’s policies, and that it merely served as a way to build public support—in opposition to the policy preferences of the Barack Obama administration—for a “surge” in Afghanistan.<2> Other team members included Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations, Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Andrew Exum of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), and Jeremy Shapiro of the Brookings Institution.<3>
Go to the site. There's more.

[BuelahWitch]

87. Is this Obama's Dick Morris?

Another toe sucker, perhaps? :shrug:

[liberation]

92. Neo-cons and Neo-liberals, birds of a feather...

Thinking all that time and effort I donated to Mr. Obama's campaign, I could have better spent doing more productive and pleasurable endeavors. Lesson learned though...

When I hear him speechify I just feel sorry for him, at some deep level he knows he is nothing but a charlatan and that in the end will eat his historical conscience. Unlike Bush who was truly a sociopath, I think Obama has some human core and will have to endure a heavy conscience. I don't envy him. :-(

Oh, well. C'est la vie, lay down with dogs... wake up with fleas. Whatever pact he had to do, I hope the selling out was worth it.

The saddest part is that these sort of news are not unexpected. Plus I already figured out team Obama was full of manure, since they kept Gates as head of the defense dept (the most powerful office in any modern American administration) for basically 2 years. And there is nothing more counter productive when it comes to change than keeping the same actor of the most important policy item of the previous administration. So news like these are simply icing on the proverbial shit cake.

[704wipes]

93. well, if this doesn't prove Obama IS NOT a socialist

I can't imagine what exactly the fuck would.....

And everyone calling here for a campaign donation will still be
wondering why I can't pony up any cash, besides the fact I make 45% less than 4 years ago.

[Capitalocracy]

97. Obviously a TYT fan

And good catch on that one. Way to be vigilent.

[Phillip Walker]

103. What is

TYT?

Never heard of this.

[Capitalocracy]

104. TYT is

a progressive internet/satellite radio program called the young turks. http://www.theyoungturks.com

That article title, Release the Kagen, is a reference to Release the Kraken, from a recent movie (what was it called? clash of the titans or something) which the host of The Young Turks uses as a sound clip on the show.

And now you know.

[donheld]

101. k & R

[Vincevega]

102. Fred who?

I think I will loose it if Obama appoints John Bolton to any position in his admini. Obama still has the final say here so I will give him a pass on this. One more thing, NO MORE WARS IN THE ME, Leave IRAN ALONE

[autorank]

106. Another day, another Kagan

Shame on me for being AWOL. This is another "sign" :evilgrin:

[Hawkowl]

107. Obama is a war monger

He is personally responsible for killing civilian men, women, and children in Afghanistan. He escalated it. He owns it. He's the commander and chief. Every little child with their face blown off is his responsibility.

If I could do anything, I would have Obama think of the dead children he is responsible for-- EVERY TIME HE LOOKS AT HIS OWN CHILDREN.

And for what? What the hell are we killing and dying for in Afghanistan?

[blindpig]

108. Welcome to DU

evil messenger.. :evilgrin:

[xchrom]

109. They're b-a-a-a-c-k -- repackaged and rebranded. Nt

[JJ Walker]

115. So predictable

All of it.