Hagel nomination a good move by President Obama
The nomination of Chuck Hagel is a death blow to the Republican neo-cons who were once led by Dick Cheney, and whose misguided ideology led to the war in Iraq. Indeed, Hagel was once a vociferous supporter of activity in Iraq but after several years of misinformation became an angry opponent of the war. Hagel is an in your face nomination, read appointment, to the hawks in Washington who still support nation building and war to diplomacy. Hagel believes, as Obama does, that war is the last resort, is it any wonder that the two are personal friends?
Obama also wants to seek bipartisanship, even though the Republicans want nothing of the sort. So, it’s more of the same in Washington: Deadlock and rancor. To be sure, John McCain and Lindsey Graham have already expressed misgivings about his nomination. Hagels stances on gays and Israel have been called into question, but that is all a smokescreen to deny true bipartisanship in our Capitol. He supports Israel, by the way and will stand proudly with gay soldiers.
Hagel will be the first enlisted veteran (Vietnam) to lead the Pentagon. His first order of duty is to reign in the military budget. Had we gone over the fiscal cliff then the military would have succumbed to a 31% budget cut, called a sequester. Many now, on both sides of the aisle, are making statements that they agree to a budget cut at our near that rate. Look at it this way: We spend 771 billion on defense while the next 13 countries combined spend 695 billion. In addition, our defense budget has more than doubled since 2001.
Chuck Hagel is an outstanding selection and we all should applaud President Obama for standing against the hawks and neo-cons that have run this country into the ground.
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