McCain vs. Hagel
Sen John McCain, R-Ariz, and Sen Chuck Hagel, R-Neb, took turns trash-talking each other's Iraq proposals on Sunday's "This Week" Hagel threw McCain's words back at him, calling his benchmark plan for Iraq "disingenuous," while McCain said that, other than his own, "they're all bad options".
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., took turns trash-talking each other’s Iraq proposals on Sunday’s “This Week.” Hagel threw McCain’s words back at him, calling his benchmark plan for Iraq “disingenuous,” while McCain said that, other than his own, “they’re all bad options….”
Chuck Hagel on John McCain’s benchmark plan:
Yes, and then having no consequences, now that’s intellectually dishonest. So what are the consequences? Are we then going to pull out? If the benchmarks are not met by the Maliki government, are we then going to walk out? Are we then going to bring our troops home? Are we going to cut funding? Now, that falls more in the intellectually dishonest category.
Watch it McCain defends his plan:
Well, the consequences are obvious. I mean, if they’re not meeting those benchmarks, then obviously the new strategy isn’t succeeding. And I can’t tell you what the other options are, because there are no good options to this. If there was a good option to what we’re doing, to sending more young Americans in harm’s way, I’d tell you. They’re all bad options, in my view, if this one isn’t supported and succeeds.
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The appointment of lobbyist Mark Esper to lead the department should be a huge scandal. That it isn't speaks volumes about our priorities.
Just shy of three months since Chuck Hagel was obliged to vacate the position, the Obama administration has a new secretary of defense -- and Ashton Carter has his work cut out for him.
Unbelievably enough, a bankrupt 13-year-old policy of war to the horizon remains ascendant in Washington, and “war fever” seems to be breaking out yet again. In this context, it's curious that four crucial aspects of war, American-style, were missing from the blitz of Hagel reportage.
Chuck Hagel's departure from his post as defense secretary has been attributed to his failure to fit in with the Obama cabinet's crowd. Among his other reported deficiencies was that he was only a sergeant in Vietnam, twice wounded.
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