HAGEL TO THE CHIEF

In his interview with Charley Rose last week Chuck Hagel warned about the dangerous reduction in our defense budget:

http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=5544

Hagel specifically said that the new congress needs to understand the seriousness of the problem:

“I’ve never been criticized for not being forthright and honest, and the Congress needs to know this. They need to understand it. Our leaders have been very clear on this.

The Hagel says that Chairman Dempsey and every other leader in the Defense Department are worried:

I am worried about it. I am concerned about it. Chairman Dempsey is, the chiefs are — every leader of this institution.  

He said that the American people need to know about this problem:

The technological edge that we have had, our people are better trained, better equipped, better motivated and better led than ever before — it is being threatened. It is being threatened, Charlie, and the American people got to know that.

I have never been a fan of Chuck Hagel.  He is the worst kind of RINO Republican.  He claimed to be opposed to the war in Iraq, but he actually voted for S.R. 46, which authorized military action subject to UN resolution. So, he kind of sort of was for the war before he was against it. Hagel opposed the surge calling it the most dangerous foreign policy blunder since Vietnam.  He opposed the Iran counter-Proliferation Act.  He was on record as saying that he thought “the Pentagon needed to be paired down.”  That is probably why Obama chose Hagel.  In some ways his position on defense was to the left of Obama. That makes these comments all the more frightening. When someone like Chuck Hagel is worried, we should all be worried.

If Hagel is right, then all of our military commanders are concerned.  There have been other times when some top military commanders tried to warn the country. But this time we have similar warnings from Leon Panetta, Robert Gates and Chuck Hagel. That means a Democrat, a Republican and a Libertarian, who probably disagree about nearly everything, are united in the opinion that our national security is at risk. That is remarkable.

The only good news here is that Hagel’s warning will not be ignored by the new Republican congress. I suspect this is one topic where Republicans will have little difficulty over turning any veto by Obama. There is also good news in that the top candidate, Michelle Flournoy, appears to be a great choice. Following is an interview of here on September 25, 2014:

http://www.cnas.org/audio/michele-flournoy-npr-isil-strategy#.VHPTLT8uscM

TDM