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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNeocon Kagans were top Patreus advisors in Afghanistan.
I can't believe there aren't several threads on this huge WaPo story today. The neocons rolled Obama on Afghanistan and controlled Petraeuss thinking.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/civilian-analysts-gained-petraeuss-ear-while-he-was-commander-in-afghanistan/2012/12/18/290c0b50-446a-11e2-8061-253bccfc7532_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Published: December 18
Frederick and Kimberly Kagan, a husband-and-wife team of hawkish military analysts, put their jobs at influential Washington think tanks on hold for almost a year to work for Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Provided desks, e-mail accounts and top-level security clearances in Kabul, they pored through classified intelligence reports, participated in senior-level strategy sessions and probed the assessments of field officers in order to advise Petraeus about how to fight the war differently.
Their compensation from the U.S. government for their efforts, which often involved 18-hour workdays, seven days a week and dangerous battlefield visits? Zero dollars.
Although Fred Kagan said he and his wife wanted no pay in part to remain completely independent, the extraordinary arrangement raises new questions about the access and influence Petraeus accorded to civilian friends while he was running the Afghan war.
Petraeus allowed his biographer-turned-paramour, Paula Broadwell, to read sensitive documents and accompany him on trips. But the entree granted the Kagans, whose think-tank work has been embraced by Republican politicians, went even further. The four-star general made the Kagans de facto senior advisers, a status that afforded them numerous private meetings in his office, priority travel across the war zone and the ability to read highly secretive transcripts of intercepted Taliban communications, according to current and former senior U.S. military and civilian officials who served in the headquarters at the time.
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Neocon Kagans were top Patreus advisors in Afghanistan. (Original Post)
hedda_foil
Dec 2012
OP
Thank goodness he is no longer influential...probably not even to Rethugs...I hope!
Auntie Bush
Dec 2012
#7
hedda_foil
(16,483 posts)1. Kicking in hopes.of responses.
MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)2. Obama should have known Patreus was a snake when he picked him up
If he didn't more fool he.
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)3. It seems Petraous has had poor judgement for a long time
spanone
(137,448 posts)4. i heard chris matthews talking about this...unbelievable
petreaus was a fucking traitor
Hydra
(14,459 posts)5. This was another massive fail by President Obama
We were assured by the 3rd way creeps that things would be done differently and smarter than the Bush Era.
There's just one problem- we never LEFT the Bush Era. We just moved some pieces around on the board.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)6. Petraeus has one misguided ego.
Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)7. Thank goodness he is no longer influential...probably not even to Rethugs...I hope!
Enrique
(27,461 posts)8. Obama is a big fan of Robert Kagan
and Robert's wife is our State Department spokesperson.