The former secretary of state goes to the mat for the defense nominee on “Meet the Press,” largely on the grounds that Hagel won’t be quick to send U.S. troops to war. Guilty conscience? In the interview Powell defends his role promoting the Iraq War, but one wonders. I hope Hagel has the courage Powell didn’t if he’s ever similarly pushed to commit men and women to a war of choice.
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Hagel has a 100 percent rating from Right to Life. In order to get that, then you have to be very great deal more pro-life than Mitt Romney’s views, never mind his income streams. Hagel has it. He is.
For good or ill, Hagel also has a 100 percent rating from the NRA.
And Hagel continues to believe that marriage can only ever be the union of one man and one woman.
The Democrats are right behind him.
It is the Republicans who are not.
cameyer says: I am not sure what your point is, David, but for too many years wedge issues have been pushed by the Right as most important. The Democrats fell into the trap. Maybe they are growing up. By refusing to let Democratic issue-constituencies pre-empt or derail the nomination of a social conservative as Defense chief, Obama has his priorities right.
ERnest Evans says: British Admiral Jellicoe said at the Battle of Jutland during World War I that he was the one man who could lose the war in an afternoon. To paraphrase the good admiral, Hagel is the one man who can stop a war with Iran and the one man who can make it inevitable. As one who has seen the face of war up close and personal Hagel has the moral clout to intimate the “Chickhawks” calling for a war with Iran. But, and this is a very big but, if he can be won over (by whatever means) to the the cause of attacking Iran, then stopping a US-Iranian war becomes almost impossible–just as after Colin Powell’s UN speech all effective resistance to going to war with Iraq ended so too Hagel endorsing an attack on Iran would end serious opposition to a war with Iran. (The best example of the total collapse of resistance to the Iraq war after the Powell speech was when Mary McGory announced that she was convinced that we had to invade Iraq.) So, with respect to the cause of peace, Hagel is a two-edged sword. For the sake of America and the world, I hope he remembers the costly lessons he learned in Vietnam. Take care. Sincerely, Respectfully and In Christ, Ernest Evans
“I hope Hagel has the courage Powell didn’t if he’s ever similarly pushed to commit men and women to a war of choice.”
I share your hope, and there’s reason to do so. Hagel is a former enlisted man and a combat veteran, a man who has held his wounded brother in his arms. I don’t believe he will treat soldiers as cannon fodder.
This is the principal reason I support his nomination.