Think Progress

The Reemergence Of Discredited Neocons: Right-Wing Conference To Advocate A Surge In Afghanistan - Monday, September 21st, 2009

The Foreign Policy Initiative (aka “PNAC 2.0”), an organization which is headed by neoconservatives Bill Kristol, Robert Kagan, and Dan Senor, is holding a conference today and tomorrow on “Advancing & Defending Democracy.” FPI arose after its previous incarnation — the Project for a New American Century — suffered a massive blow to its credibility [...]

Bredesen: ‘Advocacy Groups Don’t Matter Nearly As Much As The Pharmaceutical Groups’ - Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

It’s clear that Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) desperately wants to become President Obama’s Health and Human Services Secretary. In fact, as the Nashville Post blog points out, he was campaigning for the job in his State of the State address yesterday, stating, “[T]his recession has truly underlined for me something that I’ve believed [...]

Ken Pollack: McCain’s Iraq Withdrawal Timeline Differs By ‘Just Months’ From Obama and Maliki’s - Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Earlier this month, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signaled support for a 16-month U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. In response, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) rejected Maliki’s call, disparaging the comments as the political rhetoric of “Iraqi leaders.”
Interviewed yesterday by PBS’s Charlie Rose, however, Brookings Institution analyst and Iraq war cheerleader Ken Pollack suggested that Maliki, Sen. [...]

O’Hanlon Grades Himself On Iraq: ‘I Give Myself A Score Of 7 Out Of 10′ - Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

In an op-ed in the National Interest today, Brookings analyst Michael O’Hanlon responded to Salon’s Glenn Greenwald’s criticisms of his and the media’s often wrong portrayals of the Iraq war. O’Hanlon said that his work has “generally” been “proven right.”
O’Hanlon provided a “brief evaluation” of his “track record.” Continuing his penchant for inflating the grades [...]

Sen. Whitehouse On EPA Politicization: ‘It Looks Like Déjà Vu All Over Again’ - Friday, May 2nd, 2008

The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson noted recently that the Environmental Protection Agency under current Administrator Stephen Johnson has been operating a lot like the Department of Justice under former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The EPA’s willingness to place loyalty to Bush above country has resulted in widespread political interference throughout the Agency.
Yesterday – in [...]

O’Hanlon: Surge architects are the ‘Vince Lombardis’ of Iraq war. - Monday, March 24th, 2008

In an event at the American Enterprise Institute today, Brookings analyst Michael O’Hanlon — sitting next to hawks Fred Kagan and Ken Pollack — praised the Iraq surge, saying the surge architects would make former Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi “proud”:

I want to call them the Lombardis of this war. … And in [...]

Pollack claims Kagan says Iraq is ‘fragile,’ but Kagan disagrees. - Monday, March 24th, 2008

During a forum at the American Enterprise Institute today on “the way ahead” in Iraq, Brookings scholar and long-time Iraq war advocate Kenneth Pollack claimed that people like himself, Frederick Kagan and Michael O’Hanlon always “point out” that “all the progress that we have made in Iraq is very fragile.” Kagan, however, told Charlie Rose [...]

Pollack: 30 years from now, Iraq war will be ‘worth it.’ - Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

In a Washington Post interview today, long-time Iraq war advocate Kenneth Pollack admits that the “first four years” of the Iraq war “were about as disastrous as I could possibly imagine.” He adds, “I am hard-pressed to find a single major decision where the U.S. didn’t make the worst possible choice.” Yet he goes on [...]

O’Hanlon Fawns Over McCain: ‘He Has Been Vindicated In His Support Of The Surge’ - Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

In a USA Today op-ed today, Brookings Institution analyst Michael O’Hanlon — who is often inaccurately labeled a critic of the Iraq war — fawns over John McCain’s steely resolve on Iraq:
Democrats and other war critics should not be arguing for an unconditional and rushed departure, as the congressional leadership and Obama are [...]

O’Hanlon Teams Up With AEI’s Kagan To Advocate Pre-Emptive Strike On Pakistan - Monday, November 19th, 2007

In the wake of the recent crisis in Pakistan, Iraq escalation architect Frederick Kagan of AEI and Brookings analyst Michael O’Hanlon penned a column yesterday urging the U.S. to weigh a military option in Pakistan to secure its nuclear stockpiles:
[T]he United States simply could not stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descended into the [...]

O’Hanlon’s Long Relationship With Petraeus Revealed On Fox News’ One-Hour Special - Sunday, September 23rd, 2007

Yesterday, Fox News aired “American Commander: Gen. David Petraeus,” a one-hour biographical account of the top commander in Iraq. The program, a narrative of Petraeus’s life from birth until his controversial Congressional testimony, featured stories from old neighbors to high school buddies to fellow military officials.
One of the most prominent interviewees was Brookings Institution analyst [...]

O’Hanlon: ‘I Could Easily See Myself Changing Camps’ On Iraq ‘In The Next Six To Nine Months’ - Thursday, September 13th, 2007

At a Brookings Institution event today, Iraq war proponent Michael O’Hanlon expressed his support for President Bush’s call to extend the escalation, but he claimed he could only support the strategy “for another six to nine months”:
If you think there’s hope [in Iraq], there’s a very powerful argument in favor of trying to see what [...]

O’Hanlon Rips GAO Report: It Is ‘Flat-Out Sloppy’ - Thursday, September 6th, 2007

Last week, Gen. David Petraeus alleged a 75 percent reduction in “sectarian violence” in Iraq and is expected to say the same before Congress. In contrast, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office recently reported that daily attacks in Iraq have “remained unchanged” throughout the escalation.
The Washington Post reports today that national security analysts are questioning the [...]

O’Hanlon Hopes Final GAO Report On Iraq Will Be ‘Improved’ To Reflect WH Claims Of Progress - Friday, August 31st, 2007

Yesterday, a leaked draft of an upcoming Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on progress in Iraq painted a “strikingly negative” picture of the war-torn country. The draft contradicts “the Bush administration’s conclusion in July that sectarian violence was decreasing as a result” of the surge. It concludes, “The average number of daily attacks against civilians [...]

O’Hanlon: Soldiers Of The 82nd Airborne ‘May Have Been Taking A Slight Poke’ At Me - Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

In his New York Times op-ed, co-authored with Ken Pollack, Michael O’Hanlon wrote in support of the escalation:
Viewed from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet [...]

Sesktak Warns Iraqi Oil Law Contains ‘Undue Ability Of U.S. Oil Companies To Control Iraqi Profits’ - Saturday, August 18th, 2007

Alternet’s Joshua Holland reported recently, “If passed, the Bush administration’s long-sought ‘hydrocarbons framework’ law would give Big Oil access to Iraq’s vast energy reserves on the most advantageous terms and with virtually no regulation.” The framework law proposes to hand over effective control of as much as 80 percent of the country’s oil wealth.
A recent [...]

‘Good reason to be skeptical’ of ‘dog and pony’ Iraq visits. - Saturday, August 18th, 2007

Pointing his finger at members of Congress and dignitaries like Brookings’ analysts Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, who make brief sojourns to Iraq and then return with “bold pronouncements of ‘what I saw’ at the front,” former Washington Post Baghdad correspondent Jonathan Finer warns today that “those who pass quickly through the war zone should [...]

McCain: ‘I Was The Greatest Critic’ Of The Iraq War Over The Last Four Years - Saturday, August 18th, 2007

Yesterday on CNN, host Kiran Chetry suggested to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that he’s been unfairly “painted as being a huge supporter of the president’s Iraq strategy. Is that an accurate portrayal?” she asked.
McCain responded that “life isn’t fair” because, in reality, he’s been “the greatest critic of the initial four years” of war:
It’s entertaining, [...]

Stewart Challenges Kristol, Says O’Hanlon And Pollack ‘Are Very Hawkish Guys’ - Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

On the Daily Show last night, host Jon Stewart challenged Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol’s claim that Brookings’ analysts Michael O’Hanlon and Ken Pollack are “skeptics of the war.”
Stewart pressed Kristol on why actual skeptics of the war should trust war hawks such as him “to undo the terrible thing” they created by pushing [...]

O’Hanlon: Iraq Trip Relied On ‘The Itinerary The Defense Department Developed’ - Sunday, August 12th, 2007

In their now infamous New York Times op-ed, Brookings analysts Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack wrote that “[w]e are finally getting somewhere” in Iraq, based on their eight day trip to the war-torn country.
In the days following the op-ed, the media gushed over the analyst’s opinions, uncritically referring to them as “vocal war critics,” despite [...]