Petreaus Allowed Right Wing Think Tanks to Set Up Shop at his Afghan Headquarters

[deurbano]

95. Some think tanks linked with Patraeus....

http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=3133

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….”