"Why Obama picked Hagel" By Bob Woodward at the Washington Post

[applegrove]

Why Obama picked Hagel

By Bob Woodward at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bob-woodward-why-obama-picked-hagel-for-defense-secretary/2013/01/27/b87eb8ce-68ae-11e2-af53-7b2b2a7510a8_story.html

"SNIP..............................................

According to an account that Hagel later gave, and is reported here for the first time, he told Obama: “We are at a time where there is a new world order. We don’t control it. You must question everything, every assumption, everything they” — the military and diplomats — “tell you. Any assumption 10 years old is out of date. You need to question our role. You need to question the military. You need to question what are we using the military for.

“Afghanistan will be defining for your presidency in the first term,” Hagel also said, according to his own account, “perhaps even for a second term.” The key was not to get “bogged down.”

Obama did not say much but listened. At the time, Hagel considered Obama a “loner,” inclined to keep a distance and his own counsel. But Hagel’s comments help explain why Obama nominated his former Senate colleague to be his next secretary of defense. The two share similar views and philosophies as the Obama administration attempts to define the role of the United States in the transition to a post-superpower world.

This worldview is part hawk and part dove. It amounts, in part, to a challenge to the wars of President George W. Bush. It holds that the Afghanistan war has been mismanaged and the Iraq war unnecessary. War is an option, but very much a last resort.


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[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Woodward has expressed where Obama and Hegel are perfectly.

Great article.

I hope Hegel will be confirmed.

[JDPriestly]

2. I agree with this except I would say since Reagan was president.

“The president has not had commander-in-chief control of the Pentagon since Bush senior was president,” Hagel said privately in 2011.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bob-woodward-why-obama-picked-hagel-for-defense-secretary/2013/01/27/b87eb8ce-68ae-11e2-af53-7b2b2a7510a8_story.html

Reagan was not capable of being the commander in chief. He was easily fooled. The military and State Department played him like a fiddle. They have done that with every president and Congress since.

Well, I wish Obama and Hagel luck. They are taking on a mighty bureaucracy that rewards loyalty and is willing to lie and cheat and do whatever is called for to get its way.

My prayers go to them. They are taking on a difficult task. I don't know much about Hagel. That article sure sells him as the kind of person we need in the cabinet now.

I think that getting our military and national security apparatus back into its proper place under the Constitution is our number one priority as a nation.