Fred Kagan is complicit in war crimes and should be tried accordingly

read the horror that issues from this man's mouth...

first this...

KAGAN: The interesting thing is that when we were fighting those battles and doing that damage [in Iraq], on the whole the Iraqis were not bitching about collateral damage. You had nothing like the degree of upset about how many civilians were being injured and how much damage was being done to the infrastructure in Iraq at a much higher level of destruction than you have in Afghanistan at a much lower level of destruction.

and then this...

KAGAN: ... Afghans don’t fight in their cities. Iraqis do. For good or ill, Iraqis expect to fight in their cities. That’s where the insurgents dug in, Saddam Hussein planned to dig in to the cities or lure us into an urban fight. It’s sort of understood that the battlefield is going to be there, that doesn’t mean that they don’t complain about it, that doesn’t mean that it’s not a problem, but it does mean that when the insurgents dig in and we root them out, the Iraqis don’t on the whole say “darn it, you shouldn’t have blown up all of our houses.” They sort of accept that. Afghans do not.

i'm sitting here in the capital city of a country that has endured and continues to endure horrific and unacceptable civilian casualties, a high percentage of them children and this son-of-a-bitch, fred kagan, has the unutterable gall to talk about how iraqis ACCEPT civilian casualties and afghans DON'T...! jeezus fricking kee-rist on a pogo stick...! can you name me one single person, mom, dad, brother, sister, grandparent, uncle, aunt, cousin, niece, nephew, friend, or acquaintance that you can imagine in your wildest dreams in any country of any region of the world telling you that, of course, THEY CAN ACCEPT CIVILIAN CASUALTIES...!

fred kagan is an evil man...

(thanks to think progress... the video and audio transcripts are available on the aei website here...)

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More shameless Bush defenders

today is an embarrassment, not of riches, but of fresh, steaming, 100%, grade A bullshit... not only do we have two shills, writing under the cover of their exalted positions at the brookings institution, pushing this sorry thesis in - where else? - the wapo...


Twin Yay-hoos, O'Hanlon and Pollack

A War We Just Might Win

By MICHAEL E. O’HANLON and KENNETH M. POLLACK
Published: July 30, 2007

we also have THIS yay-hoo, writing in bloomberg, who, were it not for the tipoff given by his email (khassett@aei.org) would be otherwise unidentified as the director of economic and policy studies at the american enterprise institute...


Yay-hoo Hassett

If you want a wretched sight, look at the political speech of the leading Democratic candidates. President George W. Bush has, to put it lightly, made numerous mistakes. But he isn't Satan. You would hardly know it if you listen to the Democrats.

my GOD, it's SO-O-O_OO tiresome having this kind of crap, passing as intelligent, informed, and, yes, ACADEMIC opinion, taking up printers' ink, bandwidth and pixels, cluttering up otherwise valuable media space...

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I don't care how many credentials this man has, he says incredibly stupid things

i posted about a fred kagan op-ed in the nyt back in early may... his op-ed was entitled, "Plan B? Let’s Give Plan A Some Time First"... my comment at the time was this...

these guys just never give up, do they...? not only don't they ever give up, it seems that, no matter how terribly wrong they are or discredited they become, there's always a newspaper willing to give them space to air their delusions...

[...]

since when, i'd like to know, does a (former) professor of military history with a focus in eastern europe and the former soviet union get to claim expertise in insurgencies and civil wars in the middle east...? it's kind of like a long-haul, 18-wheeler driver, thinking he can move over to motorcycle racing...

so, today, i see, via think progress, that he's shooting off his mouth yet again...

Today, the American Enterprise Institute, a neoconservative think tank, held a discussion entitled “Assessing the Surge in Iraq,” featuring prominent Iraq war proponents like Fred Kagan, Gen. Jack Keane, and James Miller of the Center for a New American Security.

and, he-e-e-e-e-eeere's freddy...!

The worst that can be said of [the escalation] at this point is that the results have been mixed. I frankly think the results are less mixed…We can argue about statistics, but at the end of the day, that argument is not going to get us anywhere right now. … Whatever you can say about the current strategy, it has not failed.

ok, i'm not one to poke fun at anyone because of their looks, because, believe me, i have no room to talk... but, honestly, would you want anybody advising you on military strategy who looks like THIS...?



seriously... would you...?

A military historian who has taught at West Point, AEI resident scholar Frederick Kagan specializes in defense issues and the American military. In particular he studies defense transformation, the defense budget, and defense strategy and warfare. He has also written about Russian and European military history.

Professional Experience

-Associate professor of military history, 2001-2005; assistant professor of military history, 1995-2001; United States Military Academy (West Point)

Education

B.A., Soviet and East European studies; Ph.D., Russian and Soviet military history, Yale University

besides that, quite some time ago, i ceased being impressed with credentials, particularly after meeting a number of 24-carat, harvard, yale, and dartmouth-educated assholes... my response to kagan is rude, crude, and succinct... BFD... (and if you want to know what that means, ask around...)

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Fred Kagan and the neocons never have a "Plan B." Oops, enter John Boehner and "Plan B."

these guys just never give up, do they...? not only don't they ever give up, it seems that, no matter how terribly wrong they are or discredited they become, there's always a newspaper willing to give them space to air their delusions...

Plan B? Let’s Give Plan A Some Time First

By FREDERICK W. KAGAN

One of the most common criticisms of the current “surge” in Iraq is that its proponents have not developed a Plan B in case it fails. The skeptics liken this lack of a backup strategy to the Bush administration’s failure to plan for various contingencies after the initial invasion in 2003; they see a continuity of errors between previous strategies in Iraq and the new one.

In fact, the debate shows only how little the critics of the war understand about military operations. As one of the initial proponents of the surge, I argue that there is no Plan B because there cannot be one. The idea that there can be a single alternative strategy, developed now, just at the beginning of the surge, is antithetical to the dynamic nature of war. At this early stage, there are only possible general responses to various contingencies, which will become more focused as operations move forward.

The strategy now under way in Iraq — we are providing an increased number of American forces, working closely with Iraqi troops, to establish and maintain security in Baghdad as a precondition for political, economic and social progress — will change the situation in Iraq significantly, whether or not it succeeds in its aims.

and since when, i'd like to know, does a (former) professor of military history with a focus in eastern europe and the former soviet union get to claim expertise in insurgencies and civil wars in the middle east...? it's kind of like a long-haul, 18-wheeler driver, thinking he can move over to motorcycle racing... (ok, i confess... the dvd that was playing in the van on this afternoon's outing with the grandsons was "cars...")

Frederick W. Kagan is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and a former professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He earned a B.A. in Soviet and East European studies and a Ph.D. in Russian and Soviet military history, both from Yale University. He worked as an Assistant professor of military history at West Point from 1995-2001 and as an Associate professor of military history from 2001-2005. The courses he taught at West Point included the history of military art, grand strategy, revolutionary warfare and diplomatic history. He is brother to foreign policy analyst Robert Kagan.

Frederick Kagan and his father Donald Kagan, who is a professor at Yale and a fellow at the Hudson Institute, together authored While America Sleeps: Self-Delusion, Military Weakness, and the Threat to Peace Today (2000). The book argued in favor of massive military spending and warned of future threats, including from a potential revival of Iraq's WMD program. Frederick along with his brother Robert Kagan, 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).

Kagan authored the so-called "real Iraq Study Group" report as the AEI's "hawkish" rival to the ISG report of James Baker and Lee H. Hamilton in December 2006. The AEI report, titled Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq, was released on January 5, 2007, and Kagan was said to have won-over the ear of President George W. Bush, strongly influencing his subsequent "surge" plan for changing the course of the Iraq War. Along with retired Gen. Jack Keane, Kagan is credited as one of the "intellectual architects" of the surge plan.

and, oh, btw, fred, you might want to give a glance at today's wapo... it seems that you have a convincing job ahead of you on the repub side (at least with john boehner)...

"By the time we get to September or October, members are going to want to know how well this is working, and if it isn't, what's Plan B?"

give us all a break, fred, and go back to being a prof... it's obviously your better shot...

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Here's some civility for you, Joe... Eat shit and die...

[In] a panel discussion sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute ... Lieberman appeared alongside House Minority Leader John Boehner, [and] stressed the importance of civility in what is becoming an increasing hostile partisan environment within the Capitol.

you want civility, joe...? you want CIVILITY...? i'll give you CIVILITY...!

Political division during wartime weakens US interests, Lieberman said, and the four-term senator implied some politicians were cynically exploiting the war to score partisan points.

"Now, look, there are people on both sides who have very sincere opinions for or against the war," he said. "There are other people -- I say this respectfully; it hurts me to say it -- who are doing it because they're following the party."

how DARE you demean those opposed to the war by accusing them of blindly following their political party... HOW DARE YOU...! you are one craven son of a bitch, joseph i. lieberman...

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