As opposed to telling that horribly wrong warmonger to go fuck himself? From Robert Parry, who years ago broke much of the Iran-Contra story (boldface mine):
Prominent neocons, including Nuland’s husband Robert Kagan, a co-founder of the Project for the New American Century which masterminded the Iraq War, hammered home the domestic theme that Obama had shown himself to be “weak,” thus inviting Putin’s “aggression.”
In May 2014, Kagan published a lengthy essay in The New Republic entitled “Superpowers Don’t Get to Retire,” in which Kagan castigated Obama for failing to sustain American dominance in the world and demanding a more muscular U.S. posture toward adversaries.
According to a New York Times article about how the essay took shape and its aftermath, writer Jason Horowitz reported that Kagan and Nuland shared a common world view as well as professional ambitions, with Nuland editing Kagan’s articles, including the one tearing down her ostensible boss.
Though [Assistant Secretary of State Victoria] Nuland wouldn’t comment specifically on her husband’s attack on Obama, she indicated that she held similar views. “But suffice to say,” Nuland said, “that nothing goes out of the house that I don’t think is worthy of his talents. Let’s put it that way.”
Horowitz reported that Obama was so concerned about Kagan’s assault that the President revised his commencement speech at West Point to deflect some of the criticism and invited Kagan to lunch at the White House, where one source told me that it was like “a meeting of equals.”
Given Robert Kagan’s considerable role in pushing the Iraq War, he should never be allowed near the corridors of power ever again. If nothing else, why would you take advice from someone who was so catastrophically wrong–and the error was not only predictable, it was predicted.
In a just war, not only wouldn’t Kagan receive invites to the White House, he would be forced to don sackcloth and ashes and travel across the U.S. and Iraq begging for forgiveness from those whom he served so poorly.
Disgusting. And definitely not change.
