Chuck Hagel proved to be an
intelligent, reasonable man with a reputation for honesty in the Senate, and
these days that qualifies for sainthood.
The
chicken hawks are out in force these days, attacking Chuck Hagel, President
Barack Obama’s choice for Secretary of Defense.
He’s
too reluctant to use force, they say. He favors negotiation over sanctions and
sanctions over bombs, they say. He doesn’t like Israel enough; he’s an
anti-Semite.
Who’s
saying these terrible things about a man who, when he served in the Senate, was
considered a fairly reliable conservative vote albeit one with a mind of his
own?
It’s the usual suspects (plus John McCain, that rare breed: a man who has seen war but is still spoiling for a fight). William Kristol, editor of the right wing clarion The Weekly Standard, is leading the charge. This is the same Kristol, you’ll remember, who discovered Sarah Palin when she was a virtually unknown governor, sitting on her front porch in Alaska, where, as Tina Fey told us, she could see Russia from her house.
He
thought she’d make a wonderful president-in-waiting of the United States some
day, so he introduced her to his Republican friends, who agreed. Are we
supposed to take a guy with judgment like that seriously?
Do we care whom he wants for Secretary of Defense?
Do we care whom he wants for Secretary of Defense?
Or
perhaps you’d prefer Elliott Abrams, an architect of the Iran-Contra scandal,
who would have spent time in jail without a presidential pardon from George
H.W. Bush. He’s the one pressing the anti-Semitism
angle and making up
stuff to do it. His good buddy in the smear campaign is Sheldon Adelson, the
casino mogul who bankrolled Newt Gingrich’s quixotic presidential run
.
.
Come
on. Let me tell you about Chuck Hagel. He wasn’t my favorite senator — too
conservative — but he represented Nebraska, a very conservative state.
He
was, however, an intelligent, reasonable man with a reputation for honesty. In
the Senate these days, that qualifies for sainthood.
He
and his brother served a bloody tour in Vietnam, where they took turns saving
each other’s lives. He returned home and eventually realized that war is a
terrible answer to any question and should be undertaken reluctantly, as a last
resort. That’s the way he thought as a senator (he was an early critic of the
Iraq invasion, for example) and that’s the way he promises to think as Pentagon
chief.
This
drives the right wing crazy. (I sometimes think right-wingers view
thoughtfulness as a character flaw.) Conservatives favor Dick Cheney’s
rhinoceros-in-a-china-shop approach to foreign affairs.
Not
that progressives are happy with the nomination either. Hagel is just way too
right-wing for them on a variety of issues. (Progressives tend to think no one
who can actually get confirmed by the Senate is worthy of public office.)
Nevertheless,
Hagel, whose chief task will be to cut the military down to a more manageable,
less expensive size, is an ideal man for the job.
He’s
in the grand tradition of American men of war who became champions of peace
later in life. It’s a line that stretches back to George Washington and claims
politicians as diverse as Dwight Eisenhower, George McGovern, John Kerry, and
Colin Powell.
It
includes too my favorite Civil War General, William Tecumseh Sherman. While
absolutely ruthless in war, he had no love for it. At the end of the war he
said:
“I
confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting — its glory is all
moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies…tis
only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of
the wounded and lacerated…that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more
desolation.”
In
other words, the Cheneys, Kristols, and Abrams of the world.
I
like the idea of having a Secretary of Defense who knows war intimately. I like
the idea that there is a voice in our councils saying: “Wait a minute. Let’s think
this through. Maybe there’s another way.”
Hagel
could be that voice.
OtherWords columnist
Donald Kaul lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. OtherWords.org