Chuck Hagel on Iraq War

7/8 Update: I watched Senator Hagel this morning on Meet the Press. I find him to be a very intelligent, transparent and plain spoken man. There is a buzz about Chuck running as an independent with Michael Bloomberg ... I would love to see that ticket ... not that I am commiting to it :)
1/12: 60 year old Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel is a Vietnam War veteran, having served in the U.S. Army infantry, attaining the rank of Sergeant (E-5) from 1967-68. While serving during the Vietnam War, he received the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge. I found his comments about the president's new direction in Iraq worthy of repeating.
The new Iraq policy "represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder since Vietnam, if it is carried out," said Senator Chuck Hagel, a member of Bush's own Republican Party, commenting on the president's late Wednesday speech.

"To ask our young men and women to sacrifice their lives, to be put in the middle of a civil war, is wrong," said Hagel, a Vietnam war veteran. "It's... morally wrong. It's tactically, strategically, militarily wrong."

"We owe the military and their families a policy - a policy - worthy of their sacrifices. And I don't believe, Dr. Rice, that we have that policy today," Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a potential 2008 presidential contender, told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
It will be interesting to see if he is taken seriously or simply written off as rhetoric from someone seeking the presidency.

1 comment:

  1. It's beginning to feel to me like an "even more serious" change in public opinions is taking place even as we speak, that this Iraq war really and simply has to come to an end. They've had a catastrophically disastrous weekend over there - the surge is not making much difference, it seems, and Bush is so incorrigible that it's going to take a full-fledged uprising of our representatives to get him to honor the will of the people...

    ReplyDelete

I love to get comments and usually respond. So come back to see my reply. You can click here to see my comment policy.