I finally agree with Barack Obama about something. His nomination of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense is an outstanding choice. While chickenhawk neo-con Israel lackeys like Cheney, Bush, and Kristol were shitting their diapers and doing anything to avoid military service in Vietnam, Hagel was in the front lines earning two purple hearts. He’s from Nebraska, not the east or west coast. He tells the Jewish lobby to go fuck themselves. He knows that attacking Iran and killing their people through economic sanctions is a dumbass policy. The neo-con douchebags in the back pocket of the Israelis hate him. The Democrats, who are also controlled by the Israeli lobby and money, don’t like him either. His nomination hearings will reveal which Congressmen are under the control of Israel. His qualifications are impeccable.
Why the War Party Fears Hagel
By: Pat Buchanan
In the fortnight since Chuck Hagel’s name was floated for secretary of defense, we have witnessed Washington at its worst.
Who is Chuck Hagel?
Born in North Platte, Neb., he was a squad leader in Vietnam, twice wounded, who came home to work in Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign, was twice elected U.S. senator, and is chairman of the Atlantic Council and co-chair of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
To The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol, however, Hagel is a man “out on the fringes,” who has a decade-long record of “hostility to Israel” and is “pro-appeasement-of-Iran.”
Lest we miss Kristol’s point, Standard blogger Daniel Halper helpfully adds that a “top Republican Senate aide” said, “Send us Hagel, and we will make sure every American knows he is an anti-Semite.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens continued in this vein.
“Prejudice … has an olfactory element,” he writes, and with Hagel, “the odor is especially ripe.” Stephens is saying that Chuck Hagel reeks of anti-Semitism.
Hagel’s enemies contend that his own words disqualify him.
First, he told author Aaron David Miller that the “Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up there” on the Hill. Second, he urged us to talk to Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran. Third, Hagel said several years ago, “A military strike against Iran … is not a viable, feasible, responsible option.”
Hagel has conceded he misspoke in using the phrase “Jewish lobby.” But as for a pro-Israel lobby, its existence is the subject of books and countless articles. When AIPAC sends up to the Hill one of its scripted pro-Israel resolutions, it is whistled through. Hagel’s problem: He did not treat these sacred texts with sufficient reverence.
“I am a United States senator, not an Israeli senator,” he told Miller. “I support Israel. But my first interest is I take an oath … to the Constitution of the United States. Not to a president. Not to a party. Not to Israel. If I go run for Senate in Israel, I’ll do that.”
Hagel puts U.S. national interests first. And sometimes those interests clash with the policies of the Israeli government.
In 1957, President Eisenhower told Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to get his army out of Sinai. Would that disqualify Ike from being secretary of defense because, to quote Kristol, this would show Ike was not “serious about having Israel’s back”?
If a senator or defense secretary believes an Israeli action — like bisecting the West Bank with new settlements that will kill any chance for a Palestinian state and guarantee another intifada — what should he do?
Defend the U.S. position, or make sure there is “no daylight” between him and the Israeli prime minister?
As for talking to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, what are we afraid of?
Harry Truman talked to Josef Stalin and read Vyacheslav Molotov the riot act in the Oval Office. Ike invited Nikita Khrushchev to tour the United States three years after he sent tanks into Budapest.
Richard Nixon went to China and toasted Mao Zedong, 20 years after the Chinese were killing U.S. solders in Korea and brainwashing our POWs, and at the same time they were conducting their maniacal cultural revolution and shipping weapons to Hanoi.
Israel negotiated with Hezbollah to retrieve the remains of airman Ron Arad and traded 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in a deal with Hamas for the return of Pvt. Gilad Shalit. And we can’t talk to them?
If Hagel’s view that a war with Iran is not a “responsible option” is a disqualification for defense secretary, what are we to make of this statement from Robert Gates, defense secretary for Bush II and Obama:
“Any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as Gen. (Douglas) MacArthur so delicately put it.”
If Hagel were an anti-Semite, would he have the support of so many Jewish columnists and writers? If he were really “out on the fringes,” would national security advisers for presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I and Obama be in his camp?
Neocon hostility to Hagel is rooted in a fear that in Obama’s inner councils his voice would be raised in favor of negotiating with Iran and against a preventive war or pre-emptive strike. But if Obama permits these assaults to persuade him not to nominate Hagel, he will only be postponing a defining battle of his presidency, not avoiding it.
For Bibi Netanyahu is going to be re-elected this January. And the government he forms looks to be more bellicose than the last. And Bibi’s highest priority, shared by his neocon allies, is a U.S. war on Iran in 2013.
If Obama does not want that war, he is going to have to defeat the war party. Throwing an old warrior like Chuck Hagel over the side to appease these wolves is not the way to begin this fight.
Nominate him, Mr. President. Let’s get it on.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?” To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
Administrator says:
Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, said Hagel “has a very broad view of American foreign policy and the role in the world. He is very judicious, and he has an outstanding record as a senator, which gives him the knowledge and background to understand about the sometimes fractious relationship between the Congress, especially the Senate, and the administration.”
“He got two Purple Hearts on the front lines,” Scowcroft added. “That’s about the best recommendation you can get from somebody whose job would be to advise on the use of troops around the world. I am honestly surprised, even astonished, at the attacks. I do know where they’re coming from, but I don’t understand the genesis of them.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a former Army Ranger who serves on the Armed Services Committee and has traveled to war zones with Hagel, said: “Every man and woman in uniform in the Pentagon and across the world will know that he’s not only talked the talk, he’s walked the walk. … He also has a successful business record. He is an entrepreneur who’s succeeded.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, forcefully defended Hagel on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”: “Unlike some of his critics, … he has fought for his country. He has been wounded for this country. He is a man who knows what war is like.”
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/#2pZYGCRqiUz05fxV.99
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7th January 2013 at 1:04 pm
Eddie says:
Sounds like an excellent choice.
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7th January 2013 at 1:19 pm
KaD says:
Based on what you said above I wonder if he has a chance up there on the Hill?
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7th January 2013 at 2:19 pm
Administrator says:
KaD
It looks like a tough road. I’m looking forward to seeing who is under the control of the Jewish lobby. Hagel is certainly qualified to be Defense Secretary, so anyone voting against him will be revealing they are bought and sold by Israel.
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7th January 2013 at 2:25 pm
underfire says:
With Hagel as Secretary of Defense we’d get a more judicious use of the war card? What more could this broke and militarily burnt out country want? But taking on the military industrial/big oil machine is going to be tough.
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7th January 2013 at 2:53 pm
Oscar Mannheim says:
I wonder if the Great Progressive and Pacifist JHK will back Hagel. Then, too, I wonder if Obama will choose JHK as his Community Rebuilding Czar. And then I wonder just when my Poland China prize sow will take wing.
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7th January 2013 at 2:54 pm
ragman says:
Of course he war party doesn’t want a man who’s actually experienced battle to be SecDef. Why he just might bring a voice of reason to the White House. He just might oppose the illegal, unconstitutional “wars” in the ME. I’m sure usual suspects are shitting in their designer jeans. I hope he is overwhelmingly confirmed.
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7th January 2013 at 2:59 pm
Administrator says:
Chuck Hagel quotes:
“There will be no victory or defeat for the United States in Iraq.” – 2006
“The worst thing we can do, the most dangerous thing we can do is continue to isolate nations, is to continue to not engage nations. Great powers engage.”
“There is no glory in war, only suffering.”
“I don’t have to be President. I don’t have to be a senator. I just have to live with myself.”
“We must avoid the traps of hubris and imperial temptation that comes with great power.”
“We forgot all the lessons of Vietnam and the preceding history.”
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7th January 2013 at 3:06 pm
Administrator says:
During an interview in 2002 about fighting in Vietnam, Hagel said, “(I was) thinking to myself, you know, if I ever get out of all of this, I am going to do everything I can to assure that war is the last resort that we, a nation, a people, calls upon to settle a dispute.”
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7th January 2013 at 3:21 pm
Administrator says:
Military service:
Chuck Hagel brings a piece of Vietnam with him everywhere — literally — he still has shrapnel stuck in his chest from Vietnam, where he fought side by side with his brother Tom as an Army infantrymen.
Tom initially thought the shrapnel, from a mine which exploded on the patrol, would kill Chuck. Luckily, Tom successfully staunched the flow of blood.
A month later, Chuck returned the favor, after a mine striking his and Tom’s armored vehicle left Tom incapacitated. Chuck sizzled the skin off the left side of his face to rescue Tom, then helped beat back a vicious enemy assault.
Chuck’s awards include two Purple Hearts, a Vietnam Cross for Gallantry and an Army Commendation Medal.
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7th January 2013 at 3:22 pm
Administrator says:
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7th January 2013 at 3:27 pm
Administrator says:
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7th January 2013 at 3:29 pm
AWD says:
I wouldn’t want to fuck with Chuck
There must be some mistake, a patriotic white male nominee? What the fuck is happening? Obama have have sun stroke in Hawaii?
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7th January 2013 at 3:31 pm
Kill Bill says:
The Weakly Stained Turd ES
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7th January 2013 at 3:41 pm
flash says:
I would have been more impressed with Hagel if he’d told the Imperialists war whores to fuck off and instead of Vietnam , chose Canada.
…saw this over @ LW.
Hagel will be working for Sir Pimpkins….not vice versa..i.e. do as you’re told of hit the road…bub.
The Hagel Trap
Posted by Daniel McAdams on January 6, 2013 11:31 PM
Desperation can make people do strange things. Obama’s election was like a neutron bomb to the majority of the antiwar Left, with too many of the former eloquent critics of “W” suddenly twisting themselves into inhuman intellectual contortions to explain why drones in Yemen/Pakistan, targeted killing of American citizens, and arming al-Qaeda in Libya and Syria were both humanitarian and patriotic.
The rest of those opposed to empire were left desperate and grasping. Many initially sung hosannas to Obama claiming he was an antiwar alternative we could get behind. That didn’t turn out too well. To their credit some of those soon realized their mistake, but the intellectually dangerous impulse to seek salvation in a personality lingered — the temptation of a short-cut to the promised land.
Which leads us to former Senator Chuck Hagel, who far too many in the remnant of the antiwar, anti-empire movement have taken to praising as if with his nomination — expected tomorrow — the war party would be defeated.
It is a trap.
Hagel is the perfect choice for Obama if he wants to actually expand militarism: Hagel’s peace/anti-empire backers will be silenced when Hagel does as he is told (as he must) and continues, possibly expands, the disastrous policies of this administration. Do they really believe that the employee will force his drone-a-holic employer to suspend what has become the centerpiece of his foreign policy? What are Hagel’s backers going to do when he does as he must, as a man who serves at the pleasure of a president who believes he has the Constitutional authority to draw up a “kill list” of Americans? Will they start denouncing the very person they demanded get the job in the first place? How foolish would that look? How ineffective.
Be careful what you ask for. And don’t forget that among the others asking are those like the Podesta Group, who are currently making a killing on all the killing they supported in Serbia under their former boss, former president Clinton.
And if Obama decides to invade Iran (or anywhere else) there are two things a Defense Secretary Hagel can do: 1) be a good soldier and carry out to the best of his abilities the command of his commander in chief (call it the the Colin Powell UN option); or 2) resign in protest, which simply does not happen in these days. What then? Haven’t we been here before?
I think it is a losing proposition to put faith in a Hagel nomination when the real problem is our foreign policy — which is neither set by Hagel nor controlled by him. He is a good man in many ways to be sure. And that the Lindsey Grahams of the world despise him make it all the more tempting to sign those petitions. But in the end it will prove the timeless axiom of the all-time champion of politics, who said “the best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves.”
Follow me on Twitter @DanielLMcAdams
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7th January 2013 at 3:47 pm
flash says:
ref Chuck Hagel’s pic posted by AWD.
He’s got the look of one whose seen what can never be unseen….deep regrets.
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7th January 2013 at 3:51 pm
flash says:
the real patriots…they gave all.
“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism” Thomas Jefferson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnOoNM0U6oc
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7th January 2013 at 3:56 pm
Eddie says:
I’d take somebody like Hagel over a Pentagon bean counter any day ( no offense intended to anyone who reads this and might consider himself to be a bean counter,)
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7th January 2013 at 4:45 pm
Administrator says:
No offense taken.
Bean counter
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7th January 2013 at 4:56 pm
Chuck will get Taliban by the Balls « Liberalism is Trust Fucked with Prudence. Conservatism is Distrust Tainted with Fear says:
[...] What’s Not to Like About Chuck Hagel? (theburningplatform.com) [...]
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7th January 2013 at 5:02 pm
Viet Vet-70 says:
Nice to see a Vietnam Vet being considered for such a high position in the government, only surprised all the “anti-boomers” on here have not attacked the guy, tongue in cheek….
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7th January 2013 at 7:44 pm
IraK , asking what is there to like about Chuck Hagel, says:
Here’s why we should all write or e-mail our Senators to oppose Chuck Hagel’s nomination as Pentagon chief.
1. Hagel’s a threat to the necessarily perpetual War On Terror,
2. As Alan Dershowitz shows, Hagel’s appoinment will send a message to Iran that President Obama is backing away from his commitment not to allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons,
3. As Alan Dershowitz also so accurately states, Chuck Hagel, like former Secretary of Defense’s Caspaer Weinberger and Robert Gates, is anti-Israel,
4. As former New York Mayor Ed Koch argues, a Hagel’s appointment will embolden Arabs and encouages Jihadists,
5. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) points out that Hagel is no friend of Israel and had consistently advocated American weakness toward our enemies and Iran, and
6. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) knows and has said that Chuck Hagel is the wrong man for the job.
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7th January 2013 at 8:17 pm
Zarathustra says:
I’ll bet ten bucks that Rand Paul votes against Hagel.
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7th January 2013 at 12:39 am
flash says:
Where has Chuck Hagel been as freedom and property rights have been systemically whittled away over the past several decades?Sucking on bureaucracies corporate tit , that where.
Hagel is just another tool in an arsenal of Thugacracy tools…..and the fact that he’s willing to serve at the behest of Barry Shitstain Obamey and the MIC should tell one as much.
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7th January 2013 at 7:55 am
flash says:
National security
In his first term in the Senate, Hagel voted in favor of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Threat Reduction Act, establishing criminal penalties for possession of Chemical or Biological weapons, and he cosponsored the American Missile Protection Act, deploying an effective National Missile Defense system capable of defending the U.S. against limited ballistic missile attacks.[47][48] Hagel voted to establish the United States Department of Homeland Security, and supported increasing Defense Department spending, voting in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act every year he served in the Senate.[43][49] Hagel voted for spending increases in preventing AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria funding, and voting against caps on the U.S.’s Foreign aid budget.[50][51]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tYI1PY-b-ro
http://www.youtube.com/v/lO6yQvODZjI?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0
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7th January 2013 at 7:59 am
flash says:
ick here for 11 full quotes on Foreign Policy OR background on Foreign Policy.
Hagel….just another neo-con turd polisher.
Voted NO on repealing tax subsidy for companies which move US jobs offshore. (Mar 2005)
Voted YES on enlarging NATO to include Eastern Europe. (May 2002)
Voted YES on killing a bill for trade sanctions if China sells weapons. (Sep 2000)
Voted NO on cap foreign aid at only $12.7 billion. (Oct 1999)
Voted NO on limiting the President’s power to impose economic sanctions. (Jul 1998)
Voted NO on limiting NATO expansion to only Poland, Hungary & Czech. (Apr 1998)
Voted YES on $17.9 billion to IMF. (Mar 1998)
Multi-year commitment to Africa for food & medicine. (Apr 2001)
Impose sanctions and an import ban on Burma. (Oct 2007)
Implement Darfur Peace Agreement with UN peacekeeping force. (Feb 2008)
Urge Venezuela to re-open dissident radio & TV stations. (May 2007)
Develop a strategy to protect civilians in Darfur. (Feb 2007)
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7th January 2013 at 8:04 am
Administrator says:
flash
Who would you support for Sec of Defense?
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7th January 2013 at 8:05 am
flash says:
Someone outside the MIC loop…a Libertarian preferably…Ron Paul comes ot mind.
But , we all know that the duopoly of corporate whores are not going to give up the taxpayer funded defense sugar tit to a proponent of peace and liberty, so I have no dog in the hunt…just calling out the curs.
We’ll at least he went to Vietnam.
Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)
The TARP program was designed to prevent the failure of large banks by purchasing their “troubled assets” and allowing them to move them off their records as liabilities. The bill received both bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition and passed 74-25 with the two parties making up about half of each vote. In January of 2009, the Senate voted on granting the second half of the TARP funds to President Obama. Chuck Hagel voted in favor of the TARP program.
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7th January 2013 at 8:13 am
flash says:
Chuck will do just fine …..he’s in the loop. A maverick in the same vein as Senator McCain.
Voted YES on allowing some lobbyist gifts to Congress. (Mar 2006)
Voted NO on establishing the Senate Office of Public Integrity. (Mar 2006)
Voted NO on banning “soft money” contributions and restricting issue ads. (Mar 2002)
Voted NO on banning campaign donations from unions & corporations. (Apr 2001)
Voted YES on removing need for FISA warrant for wiretapping abroad. (Aug 2007)
Voted NO on requiring CIA reports on detainees & interrogation methods. (Sep 2006)
Voted YES on reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act. (Mar 2006)
Voted YES on continuing federal funds for declared “sanctuary cities”. (Mar 2008)
Voted YES on comprehensive immigration reform. (Jun 2007)
Voted YES on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security. (May 2006)
Voted YES on giving Guest Workers a path to citizenship. (May 2006)
Voted YES on allowing more foreign workers into the US for farm work. (Jul 1998)
Voted YES on visas for skilled workers. (May 1998)
Voted NO on investigating contract awards in Iraq & Afghanistan. (Nov 2005)
Voted YES on $86 billion for military operations in Iraq & Afghanistan. (Oct 2003)
Voted YES on authorizing use of military force against Iraq. (Oct 2002)
Voted YES on authorizing air strikes in Kosovo. (Mar 1999)
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7th January 2013 at 8:22 am
Erasmus says:
I like this from:
THE JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE.
tell President Obama:
Do not cave in to the Israel lobby’s smear campaigns.
Nominate the Secretary
of Defense who is
best for the US!
,
America’s Israel Lobby has unleashed a vicious smear campaign against former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, an independent thinker who President Obama wants for Secretary of Defense.
Unless we act now to counter thousands of emails that Israel lobby groups have already sent to the White House, President Obama may yield to pressure, sending the message that the Israel Lobby has veto power over all key positions in the Administration.
Sign the petition now and send to everyone you know.
Chuck Hagel is an old-school conservative Republican, unlikely to make major changes in foreign policy. But he is being targeted because he is reluctant to go to war with Iran, believes we should keep the door open to dialogue with groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and doesn’t kowtow to AIPAC.
His conservative track record means he may not be everyone’s top pick, but this battle is much bigger than Chuck Hagel.
If you, like me, thinks it’s outrageous that Israel’s leadership and their proxies in the United States think they have the right to veto all appointments to top positions in the US government, I hope you’ll join me in signing this petition to president Obama.
Sign petition here.
Tell President Obama that he should be making his decision based on who he believes is the best person for the job, not who AIPAC approves of.
In short, it matters because, as Peter Beinart wrote:
“The core truth is this: In American punditry today, you can casually accuse a decorated war hero of bigotry against Jews or Israel secure in the knowledge that while the accusation may destroy his career, it will never imperil your own. Until that changes, nothing will.”
Regards,
Rebecca Vilkomerson
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7th January 2013 at 11:15 am
AWD says:
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7th January 2013 at 3:30 pm