The (Coming) Surge In Afghanistan: Brought To You By Kim And Fred Kagan?
Justin Elliott | September 28, 2009, 11:39AM
Frederick Kagan, the neoconservative think-tanker best known as the architect of the surge in Iraq, continues to have access to Gen. Stanley McChrystal as an adviser after serving as part of a team producing the recent assessment of the Afghan war, a spokesman for the general tells us.
It had been reported that Kagan and his wife, military historian Kimberly Kagan, were part of the group that advised McChrystal on the high-profile assessment that warns of "mission failure" if more troops are not sent. But it wasn't previously known that Kagan's work with McChrystal extended beyond the review.
It's striking that Kagan, who writes for the Weekly Standard, guest blogs at National Review, and advised the Bush Administration on Iraq, is now advising President Obama's top commander in Afghanistan.
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There's little doubt the Kagans were strong proponents within the assessment team of sending more American troops to Afghanistan. They argue in a co-bylined Washington Post op-ed and a new report for the American Enterprise Institute, where Fred is a resident scholar, for 40,000 to 45,000 new U.S. troops in 2010. Fred also signed on to a letter from conservatives to Obama beseeching the president to approve an escalation in Afghanistan.
He held forth at an AEI panel earlier this year on Iraqis' tolerance, relative to Afghans, for civilian deaths caused by American forces, saying that Iraqis were "not bitching about collateral damage." Reducing civilian deaths in Afghanistan has been declared a priority by McChrystal.
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