· A Reminder: What the Hagel Farce Was Actually About

[kpete]

· A Reminder: What the Hagel Farce Was Actually About – Outsourced to Peter Beinart



The right’s core problem with Hagel wasn’t his alleged anti-Semitism. From Jerry Falwell to Glenn Beck to Rupert Murdoch, conservatives have overlooked far more egregiously anti-Jewish statements when their purveyors subscribed to a hawkish foreign-policy line. The right’s core problem with Hagel was that he had challenged the Bush doctrine. Against a Republican foreign-policy class that generally minimizes the dangers of war with Iran, Hagel had insisted that the lesson of Iraq is that preventive wars are dangerous, uncontrollable things. “Once you start,” he warned in 2010, “you’d better be prepared to find 100,000 troops.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/27/hagel-confirmation-fight-was-really-about-bush-foreign-policy-and-war.html

[Bluenorthwest]

1. O! Joy!

The DOD will now be headed by Republicans for a full 16 years at minimum. I for one do not find that news to be the best possible news just because the other Republicans have issues with him.

[jrandom421]

2. The Department of Defense is not a private fiefdom

The Defense Secretary serves at the pleasure of the President. Which means he toes the line the President has drawn, does a huge good faith effort to implement the President's policies. If he fails at that, or does some really crazy stuff, like attempting to attack North Korea on his own authority, he's gone. End of problem.

[malaise]

3. 100% correct

and war has been very profitable for consultants and those who hire them. No wonder McGramps and Graham are pissed.

[freshwest]

4. Yes, they represent the owners and the employees of the MIC firms. Their voters are scared.