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The Spectacle Blog
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee today, Chuck Hagel was grilled by Senator John McCain. McCain immediately brought up Hagel’s opposition to the Iraq surge, including his calling it a “quagmire”, and wondered why he opposed it “even as it became clear that the surge was succeeding”.
Hagel waffled a bit and McCain cut him off, demanding a yes or no answer. Finally Hagel said, “I’m not going to give you a yes or no. I think it’s far more complicated than this.” He said he would defer to the judgment of history whether he was right and called the Iraq war “the most fundamentally bad experience since Vietnam.”
“I think history has already made a judgment about the surge, sir, and you’re on the wrong side of it,” McCain shot back. McCain said Hagel’s refusal to give him a yes-or-no answer would be a factor in his vote. “Any casual observer will know that the Surge was the fundamental factor” in securing Iraq, McCain said.
McCain also interrogated Hagel over Syria, and Hagel was again cautious. “How many more would have to die before you would support arming the resistance and establishing a no-fly zone?” McCain asked. Hagel deferred to the administration, which was “looking at those options.”
Also of note, Hagel earlier called President Obama perhaps the strongest president on Israel since Harry Truman supported its creation.
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More Blog Posts by Matt Purple
http://spectator.org/blog/2013/01/31/mccain-vs-hagel-on-the-surge
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Al Adab| 1.31.13 @ 11:26AM
If only McCain had taken the same line on John Kerry. That a self serving political whore and unindicted traitor is now Sec. of State is despicable.
Bob Grant| 1.31.13 @ 12:01PM
Apparently Hagel's not one of McCain's "good friends", like Kerry.
Bob Grant| 1.31.13 @ 12:02PM
...My friend :-)
Al Adab| 1.31.13 @ 1:15PM
Not a member of "the club' so to speak. I suppose one must choose ones battles, but the difference is that Kerry is more dangerous than Hagel. I can only guess that, like in the case of Tower, the Senators know things about the man that we don't.
CJW| 1.31.13 @ 5:48PM
I like McCain only because of his service and his 5 years as a POW. Sometimes I think he is mentally unbalanced, as in his admiration for a cowardly traitor like Kerry, and his admiration for Hillary and a host of other lefty Senators with whom he co-sponsored bills, such as Feingold.
But he gets angry with Hagel, who is a real war hero. Even if the surge worked, we withdrew from Iraq, will withdraw from Afhgan, and in the words of Hillary, What difference did the surge make, except cost more American lives.
Mike W| 1.31.13 @ 1:39PM
"Self serving political whore" applies also to McCain. He is trying to destroy our country from within along with that squirrely little smudge Rubio.
Redfray | 1.31.13 @ 3:26PM
Hagel is no different than any of the other Washington rats.
ncatty| 1.31.13 @ 3:49PM
I agree that Obama is the strongest president ON Israel ever.
Derek Leaberry| 1.31.13 @ 3:59PM
Hagel is correct in saying that the Iraq War is the biggest foreign policy mistake since Vietnam. So he is wrong to say that the surge was the biggest mistake. The surge was the second biggest foreign policy mistake as several more hundreds of Americans died for a people and a country undeserving of the sacrifice.
Kingofthenet| 1.31.13 @ 4:25PM
Supporters of the Iraq War also say, 'You can't argue that Saddam being gone isn't a good thing' to which I reply, the war to me seems a lot like building a Dog House out of Gold Bars, I have no doubt it would look good, and be easy to clean, but it certainly isn't a good use of resources. I think we 'could' have found better uses for 5,000+ dead Soldiers, and tens of thousands more maimed, certainly we could have used that three trillion dollars at home.Not to mention taking our eyes off Afghanistan. No I don't believe that removing Saddam was worth all that blood and treasure.
CJW| 1.31.13 @ 5:50PM
Now that our eyes have been in Afhan with Obama as president, what is the difference? We are withdrawing. What has Obama done besides cost more American?
Burlington| 2.1.13 @ 9:44AM
The fellow is clearly muddled and lacks the intellect necessary for the job.
Kevin Gutzman | 2.1.13 @ 9:48AM
It is too soon to say that the surge was a success. Only in a couple of decades will we see whether, as I expect, the Iraq War served mainly to displace a secular Sunni dictator and clear the way for Shiite domination of Mesopotamia. If/when my expectations are borne out, the surge will be simply another wasteful step along the way, and Hagel will be vindicated.
Nightwinger| 2.3.13 @ 1:54PM
Your expectations may well be correct.
The "surge" is irrelevant in the larger context of a stupid war that History will judge as one of the biggest foreign policy blunders by the USA.
Saddam may have been a bad guy, but he was a counter-balance to Iran in the region.