I fully and heartily endorse Chuck Hagel’s nomination to serve as Secretary of Defense. This country has, at times, been ill-served in that position by those who are captured by the military-industrial complex and advocate on its behalf as though they were some kind of lobbyist. I hold Leon Panetta in high regard, but his recent (there’s no other word for it) lobbying to avoid the sequestration cuts of the DoD’s budget have been unseemly in my eyes.
Chuck Hagel served his country with bravery and open eyes in Vietnam. He and his brother vowed to one another that, should they ever see another war so foolishly expend human life to so little effect for little reason, they would do something about it if they could. Chuck Hagel courageously stood up to his own party loudly, proudly, and persistently once he realized that the War in Iraq had become such a war. Chuck Hagel has made it plain he will not rubberstamp the bellicose warmongering of some of our allies, nor that of our own folks.
The two most important things the next Secretary of Defense will need to do will be to help keep us out of unnecessary military conflict and to shepherd the Department of Defense through large spending cuts whilst retaining our ability to defend ourselves and project strength when and where we need it, quickly. This is not an argument for pacifism or disarmament. The United States needs to be able to unleash overwhelming force on very little notice if we are to be able to secure our interests at home and abroad. A wise SecDef will know to secure that capability without spending hundreds of billions of dollars per year on programs, weapons, and deployments that do not well advance that capability. In that vein, a wise SecDef will advise his or her President on the use of that force and the costs of using it. Chuck Hagel was a sincere advocate for rational spending while in Congress, but he was a very well-educated soldier in the subject of the human costs of war.
I understand why many of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters are concerned about his public statements and private views. I believe that the President that ended Don’t Ask Don’t Tell would not nominate someone who opposed open service by gay and lesbian soldiers and sailors. I am confident that President Obama would not allow any member of his cabinet to try to reintroduce systemic discrimination. I trust the President on this one. He’s earned that trust.
I must confess some confusion as to the canard that Chuck Hagel is an anti-semite. He hasn’t, as I said earlier, been a rubberstamp for warmongering and he has advocated for negotiation with all manner of dangerous people. So have I. For that matter, so did then-candidate Barack Obama. Journalists like Steve Clemons have done excellent (actual) reporting to debunk the slander that Chuck Hagel has openly and consistently demonstrated a hatred or disdain for Jews. All too often Israeli hawks and American chicken hawks conflate a lack of reflexive obedience to one wing of Israeli politics with a hatred of Jews. I am not the only Jewish American who holds the Likud (and those further right than they) at an intellectual arm’s length. I am no anti-semite. I see no real evidence to support that Chuck Hagel is one either.
We must pare down defense spending. We must try to convince, cajole, and coerce the Iranians so that they do not gain nuclear weapons, but we must do this honestly. I trust Chuck Hagel to do that without also making war inevitable. The paradigm must change. President Obama has convinced me he gets that. I trust his judgment.
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