Monday, November 24, 2014

Hagel: If he's going, is war coming?

Chuck Hagel is stepping down as Secretary of Defense. Why? The reasons given by the NYT are pretty fuzzy. For better answers, take note of Hagel's criticism of Obama's Syria strategy. Basically, he seems to be of the (correct) opinion that you can't oppose both ISIS and Assad; if you want rid of ISIS, you should work with Assad.

You should also take a look at an anti-Hagel website amusingly called chuckhagel.com. This site was set up some time ago by people who wanted to deep-six Hagel's appointment. His foes clearly felt that Hagel was insufficiently neoconnish for the job.
Throughout his career, Chuck Hagel has sought to protect Iran from U.S. sanctions and diplomatic pressure.
Chuck Hagel has sought to distance the United States from Israel, blame Israel for Palestinian terrorism, pressure Israel to surrender territory and retreat to indefensible borders, and...
Throughout his career, Chuck Hagel has sought to soften U.S. pressure on Syria, one of the leading sponsors of terrorism in the world and Iran's only Arab ally...
Chuck Hagel seeks to reduce the pressure on, and isolation of, terrorist groups and state sponsors of terrorism. In 1998, Hagel appeared to mimic the talking points of Syria’s dictator...
Hilariously, the neocons labeled Hagel an "extremist." Of course, by world standards, by the standards of all history and morality, the true extremists are the neocons themselves. The Iraq war was pretty damned extreme.

Hagel's exit may mean that the neocons have gained full control of the steering wheel. And they will steer us in but one direction: Toward a dark and dangerous place called WAR.

3 comments:

prowlerzee said...

In the wake of other events I've seen no feedback on this interesting move....I dearly hope this is one time you won't be able to say: you heard it here first. :/

CBarr said...

Well, Hagel was hired by Obama to wind down the wars and save some money. He was a Sergeant in Vietnam and knows what war is. He doesn't like war. He's not a warmonger. And he was just fired from his job by Obama. Something's changed. And it does smell like war.

Anonymous said...

->in the future,
Turkey,US,training anti Assad forces
in Anatolia,etc.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/die-tuerkei-und-die-usa-wollen-syrische-rebellen-ausbilden-a-1004789.html
->