Several months ago, a large chunk of the antiwar movement expended a great deal of “ink” arguing that the confirmation of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense would be a great victory for “our side.” Many of us were quite skeptical, arguing that:
Hagel is the perfect choice for Obama if he wants to actually expand militarism: Hagel’s peace/anti-empire backers will be silenced when Hagel does as he is told (as he must) and continues, possibly expands, the disastrous policies of this administration…
And if Obama decides to invade Iran (or anywhere else) there are two things a Defense Secretary Hagel can do: 1) be a good soldier and carry out to the best of his abilities the command of his commander in chief (call it the the Colin Powell UN option); or 2) resign in protest, which simply does not happen in these days.
Today, Hagel is a good soldier to Obama’s mad drive to war on Syria. And as I wrote earlier, his (undeserved) reputation as one who is hesitant to use force only makes stronger the administration’s arguments (“even Hagel believes it!”).
Hagel today:
It is “pretty clear chemical weapons had been used in Syria…It’s clear that the government of Syria was responsible.”
“…We have moved assets in place to be able to fulfill and comply with whatever option the president wishes to take.” US forces are “ready to go, like that.”
On whether a UN resolution was necessary, he said that no nation “is bound by only one dimension of whether they make a decision to respond to the kind of humanitarian violations we saw in Syria.”
Hagel is the great enabler. He has not even made a whisper. All that time wasted defending him and demanding that the Senate confirm him to save us from Obama’s mad militarism.
2:24 pm on August 27, 2013
