CF,
We had never paid much attention to Chuck Hagel either and we know very little about him other than what has come out since he surfaced as Barack Obama's candidate for Department of Defense (DOD). What we do know about is Barack Obama. Obama wants Hagel at the DOD and there must be some reason for that choice. We, like many others, are concerned that the Republicans in the senate are now attempting to control the Obama administration through the confirmation process. An illustration of that is the way that Lindsey Graham and John McCain rolled over Susan Rice for Secretary of State. If that is allowed to continue then Obama will not be able to freely run his administration as he wishes. John McCain has never gotten over losing in 2008 and his bitterness spills over into just about all of his dealings with Barack Obama
From our view, the Susan Rice business was a naked attempt to decrease the Democrats majority in the senate by forcing Obama to nominate John Kerry and give the probability that Scott Brown could get back into the senate from Massachusetts.
You might be able to educate us on this "flow of oil" thing but we cannot remember too many people with the possibility of having access to the levers of power admitting that we were mainly in Iraq for the flow of oil. Perhaps we are wrong about that!
All we will say about Bush and his balls is that we simply wish that he had had more brains and foresight to go along with them! It is interesting to compare our experience in Iraq to that of Afghanistan where there is a rising tide of those who want the United States to leave that country early, before Obama's scheduled 2014 exit date. We noticed on the news this morning that a British soldier was killed by another Afghan apparently posing as a friendly soldier.
Bottom line with us about the Hagel matter is that if Barack Obama wants him, that we feel there must be some reason for that desire and we respect the president after watching him over the last four years to trust him on this one. We were very active in the anti war movement in early 2003 with our constant postings on Raging Bull expressing our strident opposition in the run up to the second Iraq war but we have come to realize that if we disqualify everyone who made the wrong call on that situation that we might be disqualifying a whole generation of people who might have learned a great deal from that time. One thing that does trouble us about Hagel was his own opposition to the surge that occurred a few years later that made a difference in that war. We also know that Hagel has made a few intemperate comments about gays in the military and about Israel and the Jewish race generally. We know that Hagel's supporters have stated in regard to the Jewish comments that if Hagel had supported neoconservative positions generally that they would be ignored or forgotten.
We do want to emphasize how much we respect you but we suppose that we will not agree on everything. Perhaps the senate hearings will clarify things for all concerned as that is what they are designed to do. They will certainly give neoconservatives such as Graham and John McCain a platform to perform on. One thing that we are very interesting in hearing are Hagel’s views on the Iran situation. Iran is likely to be the compelling issue of this decade as it pertains to foreign policy and it will compare to the 2003 invasion of Iraq in the way that it is handled. It is our feeling that Iraq will do just about anything to destroy Israel but we have been fascinated to hear just what it might take restrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. One of the great roles of the Secretary of Defense is to give, along with the generals, an assessment of just what the American military can and cannot accomplish, and, what the potential costs in lives and treasure that these actions might bring to the nation. Another thing about Hagel that interests us is how he will handle the bringing the Pentagon back in line with the fiscal situation that the nation faces. Up to this time, the nations military structure has been mostly off limits in discussions about the debt and the deficit although there is some restraint built into the sequester that we face in the next couple of months. The generals think that any cuts are tantamount to a disaster while the deficit hawks may think other wise. The rub is that the deficit hawks are Republican and they also think that the military budget is sacrosanct. If Hagel is confirmed by the senate, he might bring a balance to the department and help to keep its morale up in the face of the coming cuts simply because he has fought in a war and is perceived as a common soldier instead of some more detached officer or corporate type. It is going to require some deftness to administer the DOD over the coming years in the face of everything that may be thrown its way.
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
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