Indications are that we'll win, but there's one little thing

Arm chair generals help shape surge in Iraq
Rowan Scarborough, The Examiner

When it comes to the troop surge in Iraq, a bunch of arm chair generals in Washington are influencing the Bush Administration as much as the Joint Chiefs or theater commanders.

A group of military experts at the American Enterprise Institute, concerned that the U.S. was on the verge of a calamitous failure in Iraq, almost single handedly convinced the White House to change its strategy.

They banded together at AEI headquarters in downtown Washington early last December and hammered out the surge plan during a weekend session. It called for two major initiatives to defeat the insurgency: reinforcing the troops and restoring security to Iraqi neighborhoods. Then came trips to the White House by AEI military historian Frederick Kagan, retired Army Gen. John Keane and other surge proponents.

More and more officials began attending the sessions. Even Vice President Dick Cheney came. "We took the results of our planning session immediately to people in the administration," said AEI analyst Thomas Donnelly, a surge planner. "It became sort of a magnet for movers and shakers in the White House." Donnelly said the AEI approach won out over plans from the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command. The two Army generals then in charge of Iraq had opposed a troop increase.

In January, President Bush announced the surge, which kicked off the next month. "I think without the AEI exercise, it would be highly unlikely we would have followed a completely different course over the last six months in Iraq," Donnelly said.

Keane already had done some ground work. He won a private meeting with then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in September. The retired four-star bluntly told him that he would lose the war unless he changed tactics.

The emergence of AEI as a power player on Iraq belies the notion that neo-conservatives are on the decline in Washington. AEI brags an impressive roster of neo-con thinkers. Former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, an Iraq war architect, arrived at AIE this summer, joining such prominent conservatives as John Bolton, David Frum and Michael Ledeen.

With its plan in place, the AEI Iraq team is not sitting still. Keane is an adviser to Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. He has inspected war conditions on two visits. Kagan left for Iraq this week.

"It was kind of the 11th hour, 59th minute," Donnelly said of AEI's surge plan. "It's the function that think tanks are supposed to perform to provide independent advice and analysis."

http://www.examiner.com/a-844077~Arm_chair_generals_help_shape_surge_in_Iraq.html

Quote:

Arm chair generals help shape surge in Iraq
Rowan Scarborough, The Examiner

When it comes to the troop surge in Iraq, a bunch of arm chair generals in Washington are influencing the Bush Administration as much as the Joint Chiefs or theater commanders.

A group of military experts at the American Enterprise Institute, concerned that the U.S. was on the verge of a calamitous failure in Iraq, almost single handedly convinced the White House to change its strategy.

They banded together at AEI headquarters in downtown Washington early last December and hammered out the surge plan during a weekend session. It called for two major initiatives to defeat the insurgency: reinforcing the troops and restoring security to Iraqi neighborhoods. Then came trips to the White House by AEI military historian Frederick Kagan, retired Army Gen. John Keane and other surge proponents.

More and more officials began attending the sessions. Even Vice President Dick Cheney came. "We took the results of our planning session immediately to people in the administration," said AEI analyst Thomas Donnelly, a surge planner. "It became sort of a magnet for movers and shakers in the White House." Donnelly said the AEI approach won out over plans from the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command. The two Army generals then in charge of Iraq had opposed a troop increase.

In January, President Bush announced the surge, which kicked off the next month. "I think without the AEI exercise, it would be highly unlikely we would have followed a completely different course over the last six months in Iraq," Donnelly said.

Keane already had done some ground work. He won a private meeting with then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in September. The retired four-star bluntly told him that he would lose the war unless he changed tactics.

The emergence of AEI as a power player on Iraq belies the notion that neo-conservatives are on the decline in Washington. AEI brags an impressive roster of neo-con thinkers. Former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, an Iraq war architect, arrived at AIE this summer, joining such prominent conservatives as John Bolton, David Frum and Michael Ledeen.

With its plan in place, the AEI Iraq team is not sitting still. Keane is an adviser to Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. He has inspected war conditions on two visits. Kagan left for Iraq this week.

"It was kind of the 11th hour, 59th minute," Donnelly said of AEI's surge plan. "It's the function that think tanks are supposed to perform to provide independent advice and analysis."

See what I mean?

The Prez. went forward with the plan, submitted to him by the Neocon think-tank, over the objections of the Pentagon and the Generals who were in charge in Iraq at the time.

The whole 'listen to the generals on the ground' line is bullshit. Bush is doing what those who put him into office, who recruited him, and who have written all his policies, tell him to do: increase the violence in Iraq despite recommendations from those who know the most about the situation not to do so.

Cycloptichorn

It would rock my world if either got in (although Hillary is scary to me for other reasons). Just don't see it happenin'.

No one seems to give any significance to the Obama Girl. (I assume all of you have seen her in action.) Could it be that she will, down the line, be the trophy wife. She would definitely liven up the White House.

I am, and there is nothing I said that contradicts that. Jeez!!!! You have heard of divorce?

BTW, too bad that there is a dearth of wit around here.

2.) I think there are OTHER reasons why Hillary would not choose Obama as a running mate, and I think those are valid reasons.

Hillary makes me uneasy on a few different levels -- those have much more to do with things like the fact that she didn't read the National Intelligence Estimate (which people like Durbin[?] were heartily encouraging her to read) before voting on the Iraq war, and her subsequent equivocations, than anything about her last name or her cookie-making skills. However, there is a lot I do like about her, and if she becomes the nominee, I'll vote for her and try to get her elected.

I read the New Yorker and the New York Times regularly -- but that's not all I read, by a long shot. My current job (which I've had since January) involves finding and reading political reporting from all over the world, and fact checking one against another. I resent the idea that if I have a certain view, it must be because it has been spoon-fed to me.

Meanwhile, let me separate two things:

1.) I think it could be argued that Hillary wouldn't want to enter into a partnership with someone who could easily eclipse her in the charisma department -- I don't necessarily think that is the case.

2.) I think there are OTHER reasons why Hillary would not choose Obama as a running mate, and I think those are valid reasons.

Hillary makes me uneasy on a few different levels -- those have much more to do with things like the fact that she didn't read the National Intelligence Estimate (which people like Durbin[?] were heartily encouraging her to read) before voting on the Iraq war, and her subsequent equivocations, than anything about her last name or her cookie-making skills. However, there is a lot I do like about her, and if she becomes the nominee, I'll vote for her and try to get her elected.

It suggests a female shrieking voice, quite witchlike.

soz
You have been, since abuzz, one of my very favoritist peoples. For what that's worth.

But I think there are some things going on here which too many folks haven't quite understood entirely yet.

For example, I think it was nimh a while ago who said that Hillary's voice was "like fingernails on a blackboard". Whether nimh or someone else, that derogation has, as its referent, her gender. It is a metaphor which would not be appropriate for a lower pitched male voice. It suggests a female shrieking voice, quite witchlike. One can read or hear such a metaphorical construction and be quite unaware of all the work it is getting done. Note how often "witch" is used in the right wing derogations of Hillary. Or we can reference Tucker Carlson's recent comments about how, every time he sees/hears Hillary, he has the urge to close his legs. He's also describing Obama as "feminine".

blatham wrote:

soz
You have been, since abuzz, one of my very favoritist peoples. For what that's worth.

But I think there are some things going on here which too many folks haven't quite understood entirely yet.

For example, I think it was nimh a while ago who said that Hillary's voice was "like fingernails on a blackboard". Whether nimh or someone else, that derogation has, as its referent, her gender. It is a metaphor which would not be appropriate for a lower pitched male voice. It suggests a female shrieking voice, quite witchlike. One can read or hear such a metaphorical construction and be quite unaware of all the work it is getting done. Note how often "witch" is used in the right wing derogations of Hillary. Or we can reference Tucker Carlson's recent comments about how, every time he sees/hears Hillary, he has the urge to close his legs. He's also describing Obama as "feminine".

You've been reading to many of Joan Didion's conspiracy stories.

blatham wrote:

It suggests a female shrieking voice, quite witchlike.

You forgot "shrill". Or has Karl Rove accorded a monopoly on this term to Paul Krugman haters?

[Origin: 1650-60; < L hystericus < Gk hysterikós, suffering in the womb, hysterical (reflecting the Greeks' belief that hysteria was peculiar to women and caused by disturbances in the uterus); see hystero-, -ic]

I don't know, for me the voice of Dennis Kocinich is like nails on a blackboard and he's a guy...isn't he?

Ditto Harry Reid. Looking and listening to him makes my hair hurt as I marvel that somehow the Dems have discovered the secrets of Dr. Moreau and did their best work on a toad.

You know, without all of deliberate and concerted efforts to cast Newt Gingrich as Satan's spawn, you might feel entirely different about him.