Thursday, November 29, 2007

Chuck Hagel...

...tells it like it is.

5 Comments:

Blogger lovable liberal said...

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7:59 PM  
Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

I think Hagel and Joe Leiberman are both men of good conscience, altho both parties would be willing to trade. (OK, OK, Lieberman is technically an independent, but being the VP nominee for the Democrats in 2000 should cound for something.}

[OK, Henry Wallace---you've got a point here.]

Men of good conscience can disagree, or so I've been told.

From the link:
[Hagel] earlier this year...called Bush's plan to send thousands of additional U.S. troops to Iraq "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam."

That would be the "surge," I reckon. Whatever.

3:33 AM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

Yeah, I noticed that part, too. He was wrong about the surge. But right about the rest.

One thing to remember here, again, is that, aside from people who had an antecedent commitment to Bush, these are basically the conclusions that just about everybody has reached. And even many who DID have an antecedent commitment to Bush have reached them. This gives us a touchstone if we can't agree on the evidence: the vast majority of informed, uncommitted people have come to the conclusion that this administration is terrible. And, in fact, many who were previously committed to Bush have come to the same conclusion. That's worth noting.

But, more to the point, it's specifically the arrogance point here that I found of interest. It's not a new point, and basically everybody already knows it. But it's important that a respectable Republican like Hagel says it out loud.

9:43 AM  
Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

The arrogance charge is valid. However, I'm inclined to narrow it to the disastrous drift of the Bremer years in Iraq and disinclined to apply it to everything.

3:38 PM  
Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

And Hagel was a bit more than merely wrong in his remarks about the "surge."

"...the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam."

I mean, c'mon, man. "Respectable" Republican means somebody who talks trash against the administration, and this is trash. He's retiring and good riddance. A shame Bob Kerrey isn't running for his seat.

10:51 PM  

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