Robert Kagan’s eternal optimism.
One day after the Washington Post reported that President Bush’s rosy claims about escalation were misleading or false, it runs an op-ed by Robert Kagan, William Kristol’s frequent writing partner, titled “The ‘Surge’ Is Working.” Glenn Greenwald writes:
No rational person would believe a word Robert Kagan says about anything. He has been spewing out one falsehood after the next for the last four years in order to blind Americans about the real state of affairs concerning the invasion which he and his comrade and writing partner, Bill Kristol, did as much as anyone else to sell to the American public.
In April, 2003, Kagan declared the war over and said we won. Since then, he has continuously claimed that things were getting better in Iraq. He is completely liberated from any obligation to tell the truth and is a highly destructive propagandist whose public record of commentary about Iraq ought to disqualify him from decent company, let alone some sort of pretense to expertise about this war.
Sort Comments By: Top Rated | Date
43 Responses to “Robert Kagan’s eternal optimism.”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Think ProgressContact Us
Donate
There’s nothing like seeing that bizarro editorial, based apparently on the optimism 2 Iraqi bloggers have, coupled with the “we need 8500 more troops and $36 billion more cash” article in the news. And these guys have a problem with Lancet?
March 11th, 2007 at 2:41 pmAll these neocons do is lie, it is part of who they are.
March 11th, 2007 at 2:48 pmMost mornings, when I get up and have some breakfast, I say to myself, “I wonder what the little Nazis are doing today?” And then I connect to the Internet and see what I can see. Sometimes, I am so sick of all the right-wing crap, lies, smears and stupidities that I don’t even bother reading any of the progressive websites, such as this one. I had a nice quiet day off yesterday. Someday, soon, I hope, no one will even buy one issue of the Washington Post and no one will watch Fox News for even a minute. When their ratings slump enough to cut their profit level, then, maybe, they may actually start honestly reporting the news and will stop propagandizing us.
Cheers.
March 11th, 2007 at 2:48 pmYou haven’t heard that it was KAGAN who PRESENTED the “surge” idea to Bush? As a way out of following anything from the Iraq Study Group? And, you don’t know that he was one of the key neo-cons who wrote THE PROJECT FOR A NEW AMERICAN CENTURY along with his buddy Bill Kristol?
No doubt they are all attending the big annual AIPAC meeting today.
March 11th, 2007 at 2:49 pmI hope someone else is there — to let us know when it is we will be nuking Iran.
With nearly a third of America blindly behind them, Kagan and Kristol are laughing all the way to the bank…the Swiss bank… where their dollars are being quietly converted into Euros. jus’ sayin’.
March 11th, 2007 at 2:53 pmHey Sandy — you’re actually thinking of Fred Kagan, the AEI fellow, not Robert Kagan, though they seem to agree wholeheartedly on Iraq.
March 11th, 2007 at 2:53 pmIf you’re a BUSH Republican your a liar.
If you support these Republicans you are by necessity a liar as well.
If you’ve been listening to Kagan and Kristol and are fool enough to beleive these tools, then you have been properly conditioned to beleive anything and lie without even knowing it.
That’s mission accomplisned, Bush style.
March 11th, 2007 at 2:54 pm“The ‘Surge’ Is Workingâ€
But, only if you keep clapping loudly.
March 11th, 2007 at 2:57 pmThe Kagans are the Hanson Brothers of Neo-con propaganda.
-GSD
March 11th, 2007 at 2:57 pmIs America really prepared to be fed pictures of fully armed, body-armored US troops enforcing martial law on a country we invaded as a sign of success? Do we really feel electing Republicans in 2008 is the fix for the mess Bush and his neocon flunkies created? Hell, they were the ones who made this mess.
March 11th, 2007 at 3:02 pmOff topic, but perhaps not. Last week I visited the LBJ Presidential Library at the University of Texas, Austin.
I was again reminded how significant an impact this man from Texas had on domestic American life and making it better for the vast majority of Americans. Now we have “another man from Texas” who , along with his neo-con friends are intent on destroying all the work of LBJ and negatively impacting the American way of life far into the future.
I was depressed and angry at the same time. We need to remove this administration and return government to the citizens. Special interests have and will continue to destroy America. . . it’s time to apply the pressure.
March 11th, 2007 at 3:07 pmOkay, it WAS Fred, Robert’s brother….the sons of Donald….KAGAN…whose masterpiece the surge idea was. All in the neo-con wizards family.
Robert WAS — together with Bill Kristol — co-creator of THE PROJECT FOR A NEW AMERICAN CENTURY. Dad, Donald, a signer.
They “seem to agree wholeheartedly about Iraq”? Is this some kind of understatement…..for effect?
Nobody ever brings up the PNAC and what it stood for. What it SAID.
Everyone’s afraid. No one can handle the TRUTH.
March 11th, 2007 at 3:10 pmI kinda like what Kagan said in 2003 about the Iraq war being over and how we won and all. Too bad GDumbya wasn’t listening when he made that pronouncement — he could have started pulling the troops out then and we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in over there today. Sure would have saved a couple thousand American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives and a couple hundred billion dollars, too.
Of course, it would have been better still if GDumbya had listened to Powell and countless others (including Poppy Bu$h) who advised him against his stupid little fiasco in the first place.
March 11th, 2007 at 3:18 pmThe Iraq and war on terrorism spin that worked so well in the past for the Bushs and Cheneys and Kagans doesn’t fool the American people any longer. Last fall’s election results attested to the change as does a new poll conducted for “The Third Way National Security Project.” The survey results reveal that today a solid majority of the public has very different attitudes about terrorism and counterterrorism policies than the President and his crew.
March 11th, 2007 at 3:27 pmTom, you’re just being selfish. Think of all those poor starving defense contractors….
/sarc
March 11th, 2007 at 3:29 pmDo these people ever tell the truth? And they call themselves Christians? Christians do not behave like that, oh wait a minute I forgot they are re-writing history and also distorting it as well. God help us.
March 11th, 2007 at 3:42 pmIt’s easy to be optimistic while sitting behind a desk, having white wine lunches, peering skyward thru condtioned air and tinted plate glass windows wating for lofty words to sift thru your addled mind unto a monitor.
March 11th, 2007 at 3:49 pmKagan sounds like so many other mental patients in this psychiatric hospital. I think he needs electro-shock and a lobotomy, ASAP. Then, he can relax in la-la land where all the butterflies are free and the flowers smell like pizza. Tra-la-la-f*ing-la… !
March 11th, 2007 at 4:26 pmWHEEEE
AWLLLLL
LEEEEVE
INNAHHH
YELLERR
SUBBBB
MAHHH
RINNNE
Man, somedays, when I read this stuff, I am reminded of how lucky I am to be insane.
March 11th, 2007 at 4:34 pmIt’s easy to be optimistic
Comment by Crazy Eddie — March 11, 2007 @ 3:49 pm
What are you smoking?
March 11th, 2007 at 4:39 pmGreenwald has a list of kagans greatest hit over the last 4 years. My fav is when he writes that we have to be careful not to get to giddy with the thrill of victory. Of course he couldn’t spew his crap in such a high profile venue without graham and hiatt facilitating him.
March 11th, 2007 at 4:53 pmRobert Kagan born in ‘58,another limp-wristed blowhard, in a long line of Chickenhawks!They know book-learnin about how to fight a war,but would never show up to participate in one!
March 11th, 2007 at 5:08 pmKagan’s PNAC. Frankly, that’s all I need to know.
March 11th, 2007 at 5:09 pmcrazy eddie - thirtysome years ago i went through a country phase - but it was the classics or country rock (remember that?)… mostly to tune out the disco … but i’m still fond of some of my country albums…
a particular song i’ve latched onto is by one of my favorites:
waylon jennings…
“i’ve always been crazy, but it keeps me from goin’ insane…”
heeeya… ain’t that the truth…
March 11th, 2007 at 5:16 pmHow can it be that the British are removing troops and bush says it’s due to “success” but now we need more troops? There continues to be a huge gap between Iraq reality and cheney/rove/bush reality about Iraq. Whatever happened all those wonderful allies of bush in fight terror in Iraq?
March 11th, 2007 at 6:30 pmRobert Kagan sees visions of unicorns and rainbows….
March 11th, 2007 at 6:44 pmWhat are you smoking?
Comment by shane
Sarcasm.
March 11th, 2007 at 7:04 pmheeeya… ain’t that the truth…
Comment by katy
Why thanks, I think, Katy =)
Tis a fine line we walk.
March 11th, 2007 at 7:06 pmCrazy Eddie,
We don’t have to be crazy to come here, but it sure helps. :)
March 11th, 2007 at 7:09 pm[…] 2007 I was turned on to this optimisitc opinion piece by Robert Kagan by the liberal website Think Progress. I bring it to our attention mostly because it mirrors so closely my own blogging, particularly the […]
March 11th, 2007 at 7:12 pmCrazy Eddie, We don’t have to be crazy to come here, but it sure helps :) Comment by Zooey
That it does.
I remember someone once said;
You cannot wake a person thats pretending to be asleep. =)
March 11th, 2007 at 7:15 pmYou cannot wake a person thats pretending to be asleep. =)
Comment by Crazy Eddie
Great wisdom. :)
March 11th, 2007 at 7:27 pmKagan says the surge is working BUT..
March 11th, 2007 at 7:48 pmBush has asked for even more troops and money..
Army generals say the “insurgents” are more cunning and efficient than we are..
Do those facts contradict Kagan’s bullsh*t?
kagan - “completely liberated from any obligation to tell the truth”…
that almost sounds like a “happy place”…
far too many pretend sleepers, and sleep walkers, seem to agree…
March 11th, 2007 at 7:55 pmI can hear their next slogan now, are you ready for it?
‘we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel’.
sound familiar?
March 11th, 2007 at 8:59 pmsound familiar?
Comment by Uncle Ho
Yeah, it sounds like a train whistle….
March 11th, 2007 at 9:05 pmtrain whistle = train wreck.
March 11th, 2007 at 9:10 pmBingo!
March 11th, 2007 at 9:11 pm#34 ‘we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel’.
March 11th, 2007 at 10:15 pmWhenever I hear that adage, I think of my sister (I call her Malaprop). She speaks of finding the “light at the end of the rainbow” I tell her yeah, it’s right by the pot at the end of the tunnel.
Sorry -OT
Robert Kagan was irrelevant two or three Friedman Units ago.
March 11th, 2007 at 10:54 pmThere have been two major articles saying the surge is working in the news media. The first was by the author of the plan’s wife in the Weekly Standard. Now this by his brother in the Washington Post. If you can’t go outside your family to find support for your plan….
March 12th, 2007 at 5:59 amThat LUDICROUS MORON Kagan MUST HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THE “surge protector” HE BOUGHT AT THE LOCAL RadioShack(tm)!!!! THAT’S THE ONLY SURGE THAT’S WORKING, AND BOTH Kagan and HIS BUTT-BUDDY Kristol KNOW IT–HOW THESE neo-CON-men LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH IN AN ATTEMPT TO SWAY PUBLIC OPINION, WHICH WILL NEVER CHANGE FROM ITS COMPLETE DISAVOWAL OF AND LACK OF TRUST AND BELIEF IN WHATEVER CHIMPya, Bushland Uber Allies or its neo-CON-men allies like Kagan and Kristol SPOUT FROM THEIR LYING MAWS!!!!! LIES, LIES, LIES, LIES, LIES and MORE DAMNED LIES–THAT’S ALL THESE MISERABLE CREEPS KNOW HOW TO DO!!!!! THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS KIND OF LYING JINGOISTIC DEMAGOGUERY FROM FILTHY RATS LIKE Kagan and Kristol ANY MORE–TAKE THEIR LIES AND SHOVE IT UP THEIR LYING ANUSES!!!!!
March 13th, 2007 at 4:05 pmIf there IS any hope for This Our Earth, it’s the Buddhism, I don’t know if I can just like that fail to mention to You, & whose ideology you’re meanwhile absolutely welcome(+) to take up with me, so that I can at least TRY & tell you what I’m by my moral eye all about: to be conti- nued, if need be.
April 28th, 2007 at 2:03 pmGreetings, J.A.,
Stgo., Cl.