chickaree wrote: Chuck Hagel earned not one, but two Purple Hearts. Does anyone here seriously doubt that the defense budget is bloated and full of waste? Does anyone here think that war with Iran would go better than war with Iraq and Afghanistan? Does anyone here think that if Hagel is withdrawn as a candidate that Obamas next choice will be more conservative? All I see here is more Republicans shooting themselves in the foot.
What does his two purple hearts have to do with it. Kerry is a perfect example of that. I said before, there are areas within DOD that could be cut and save alot of money. Most of the defense secretaries wanted to do it all along, Congress was the problem not DOD. They whined and cried. Norfolk VA alone is slated within the next couple of months to lose thousands of jobs and repair contracts for jobs, Why, because Congress can't pull thier head out of their rears. I don't care what your party is, there has been no budget in 4 years or more. Both sides are at fault.
Hagel was against letting gays openly serve in the military, then he changes his mind when he hears he might have a chance at Defense Sec, He wants to do away with our Nuc arsenal all together, (yep the other countries would love that), he all of a sudden changes his mind on Israel, and he even supported obama withdrawing the troops from Iraq, (even though we had to leave due to the status of forces contract that ran out Dec 31, 2011 that President Bush signed. Obama actually tried to broker and new agreement to keep troops there.)
CPO,
You could be right, don't want to make the President look bad, but I sense enough people dislike the guy and there are plenty of reasons to not support him.
Rice withdrew her nomination for even less.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
It will be nice, for a change, to have a Secretary of Defense who apparently doesn't think war / bomb-first-ask-questions-later is the best solution to everything that comes along.
Sounds like McCain, Graham, et. al., have a political axe to grind. What a surprise that the neo-cons who "never met a war they didn't like", would be against someone who doesn't share their views... But they got a lot of face-time on the TV, which was apparently the goal.
