Why we need Hagel for DoD

The Republican neo-con hawks -- and their wealthy donors, like Sheldon Adelson -- are the ones behind the attacks on nominee and former senator Chuck Hagel.   The issues of an anti-gay statement he made in 1998, and his supposedly anti-Israeli stance (not true) are not the real issue, although for some people they are also real.

The most vehement opposition comes from those who see Hagel as chosen by Obama in order to help him broadly reposition our foreign policy as a clear break with the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive attacks and promotion of democracy in other countries, by military means if necessary.    Hagel represents, to them, a position of appeasement toward our enemies, insufficiently hawkish, and thus pushing America into a decline as the leading world power.   His support for cutting defense spending only adds fuel to their fire.  I think they are wrong about his positions;  he may be a threat, but it's to their neo-con policies that he is a threat.

He is a triple threat because he is a Purple Heart Viet Nam veteran, a Republican who initially supported the Iraq war, and a former member of both the Foreign Relations and the Intelligence committees of the Senate.  And thus if he, with those credentials, is anti-war and anti-interventionist, then it undermines their influence and power.  "They" being the neo-cons in Congress, the former Bush Vulcans, pundits like Bill Kristol, and think-tanks like the American Enterprise Institute.

Hagel would also presumably back Obama in his realist stance toward Israel and toward Iran.  He has affirmed his commitment to the state of Israel and its security, but he is also critical of some of its actions in building settlements and occupying Palestinian territory.  He supports diplomatic solutions over military ones regarding Iran.   These are not anti-semitic positions; many Jews, both in Israel and the U.S., agree with him.

So his nomination is being seen as an indication of the direction President Obama wants to go in foreign affairs and military policy, and Hagel is seen as the independent thinker and outspoken critic of the old ways, who speaks with uncommon honesty.

Those opposing him fear him as a threat to neo-con relevance, if not for their actual political survival.

And those are exactly the reasons that President Obama needs Chuck Hagel and why we, the American people need Chuck Hagel as our Secretary of Defense.

Ralph