Whats wrong with Chuck Hagel?

[Beavah]

Maybe instead of spending billions each month and American lives to insure the security of Afghanistan school children, we did it first here with our own.

 

Yah, this quote from RememberSchiff puts me in mind of da current debate over da nomination of Republican Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary.

 

Former Senator Hagel in many ways is one of da Beavah's Republicans, eh? An old school, honorable conservative pragmatist. A fellow who served his country with distinction and is able to be straight about principles and reality. I was impressed that President Obama would cross party lines in favor of choosin' such a fellow for SecDef.

 

To my mind it shows how far da current Republican Party has wandered away from true conservative values to see them actively opposing one of their own former colleagues and caucus members. Yeh would think that havin' a fellow conservative Republican as Defense Secretary in a Democratic administration would sail through confirmation with a sigh of relief.

 

I've been watchin' da media blitz against Senator Hagel by these neo-con ninnies in confused horror. As close as I can tell, the objections run somethin' like this:

 

1) He's talked about "bloat" in the Pentagon budget and believes it should be streamlined.

Well, back in the day, we used to call this fiscal responsibility.

 

2) He voted initially for da war in Iraq, but then became increasingly opposed to the way it was managed.

Yah, well, chalk him up as bein' in sync with most of America

 

3) Along with John McCain, he opposes torture of prisoners.

Yah, well, give him points for honor and bein' willing to uphold da law.

 

4) He's an advocate of continued gradual drawdown of da global nuclear arsenal.

Seems pretty prudent, since it will decrease da likelihood of random belligerent groups gettin' their hands on a nuke.

 

5) He's a realist and old-school conservative on da Middle East

This seems to be da biggest thing that sticks in their craw. Da neo-con crowd seems determined to want to follow the barely-re-elected PM of Israel into starting a war with Iran, despite da fact that even da military believes such an endeavor is foolish.

 

Am I gettin' that wrong? Am I missing somethin'? Can someone please explain to me what these folks are thinkin'? Is it just that they are so in da pockets of da gun/defense industry lobby that they forgot their conservative values?

 

For me, it cements how far da modern Republican party has abandoned da rest of us. Guns-and-butter overseas intervention and nation-building used to be da foolishness of the spendthrift Democrats like LBJ, which was opposed by us pragmatic conservatives who did not wish to squander our nation's wealth or young men in pie-in-da-sky adventurism.

 

Beavah

 

[packsaddle]

"...they forgot their conservative values?"

This is one part for which I can offer a different view. In my mind, they never had conservative values in the first place. They never forgot anything. It's always been all about personal gain.

I'm with you on the rest. It is incomprehensible that Hagel is getting this opposition from his own party.

[skeptic]

Maybe it is really still just because of who does the appointing. Hold up important posts, and then blame the President for not dealing with things in that arena as well as he might do with a qualified adviser.

[acco40]

From what I gather, the anti-Hagel crowds main dislike of Hagel is his view on defense spending, Israel and Iran.

 

Less than ardent fans of the U.S. military. - Ted Cruz (Texas)

 

I fear that Hagel will be a staunch advocate for, or even accelerate, the continuation of this administrations misguided policies. Jim Inhofe. The misguided administration policies were determination to oversee significant reductions to the size and resourcing of our military.

 

Also, his views on Israel and Iran are not universally endorsed. Chuck Hagel, if confirmed to be the secretary of defense, would be the most antagonistic secretary of defense toward the state of Israel in our nations history. Not only has he said you should directly negotiate with Iran, sanctions wont work, that Israel should directly negotiate with the Hamas organization, a terrorist group that lobs thousands of rockets into Israel, he also was one of 12 senators who refused to sign a letter to the European Union that Hezbollah should be designated as a terrorist organization. - Lindsey Graham.

 

So, I don't think anyone on either side of the aisle is against waste or bloat so to speak in spending but one man's waste is another man's necessity when it come to government spending.

 

As someone who works in the defense industry (private company), I'm biased but yes, the pentagon/government defense procurement process leaves much to be desired. What was the last major developed combat vehicle? Look at the money and resources spent on JLTV, EFV, Crusader, FCS, FSCS, A-12 and a myriad of other systems that never got fielded.

[packsaddle]

"Look at the money and resources spent on JLTV, EFV, Crusader, FCS, FSCS, A-12 and a myriad of other systems that never got fielded."

Yes! And yet we scowl at food stamp recipients, tsk, tsk. Eisenhower was right.

[Kahuna]

Beavah: without getting into the validity of the Republican conservative values of Chuck Hagel . . . Did you see any of his confirmation hearing? This guy is clearly not competent to be SecDef. He fumbled, he was unprepared, he did not know things he should know, he absolutely refused to defend his stand on "the surge" in Iraq. Is this a guy we want in charge of the most important department of our government in a crisis? If you haven't seen it, you should go over to YouTube and type in "Chuck Hagel confirmation hearing." If you still think he's the right guy, I wouldn't know what to say in answer.

[jrush]

So, what should he know? He should know to support the izzies regardless of what they do? He should know to throw money at defense programs the DOD itself wants to cut? He should know to make a decision about the historical wisdom of dumping billions of dollars and thousands of lives into Iraq decades before history will decide if we stabilized a region or created a safe haven for extremists? Fork it up....what should he know to make him qualified by your standards? While we're at it, what makes you qualified to render judgement on the person who will set and implement policy for the most expensive, farthest reaching military force on the planet?

[Kahuna]

While we're at it' date=' what makes you qualified to render judgement on the person who will set and implement policy for the most expensive, farthest reaching military force on the planet? [/quote']

 

Thirty years as a military officer for a starter. Anyway, the question is, can you look at those videos and say that the man is capable and knowledgeable enough to be Secretary of Defense?

 

[NJCubScouter]

Jrush: Who, or what, are "the izzies"?

[Kahuna]

. . . sound of crickets.