Friday, January 11, 2013

Chuck Hagel: Iran’s useful idiot

Senator John Cornyn has written a brief article which appears on the CNN web site, entitled “Why I can’t support Chuck Hagel”. A sample:
In July 2001, 96 U.S. senators voted to extend sanctions against Iran. Chuck Hagel was one of only two senators who voted against sanctions. A year later, he urged the Bush administration to support Iranian membership in the World Trade Organization.

Even more disturbing, Hagel voted against a 2007 measure that called for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be designated a terrorist group. (At the time, the IRGC was aiding and equipping Shiite militias that were murdering U.S. troops in Iraq.) A few weeks after this vote, Hagel sent a letter to President George W. Bush asking him to launch "direct, unconditional, and comprehensive talks" with the Iranian government, which the State Department has labeled a state sponsor of terrorism every year since 1984.

In July 2008, Hagel recommended that Washington go beyond direct talks and establish a U.S. diplomatic mission in Tehran. Later that month, in a Senate Banking Committee vote, he was one of only two senators to oppose the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act. (Obama signed a subsequent version of this bill in July 2010.)

Finally, in his 2008 book, "America: Our Next Chapter," Hagel appeared to suggest that the United States could live with a nuclear Iran, writing that "the genie of nuclear armaments is already out of the bottle, no matter what Iran does."
I don’t know whether Obama nominated this guy as a calculated affront to Israel (and, for that matter, an affront to anybody who believes in a strong America), or whether it was the president’s idea of a practical joke, or whether, as some have argued, because of Hagel’s obvious utility as a means of enabling the president to reduce the U.S. to the status of a third-rate power. I frankly don’t care about the motive. I just know that this is a deliriously wrong-headed move.

9 comments:

rinardman said...

I just know that this is a deliriously wrong-headed move.

Just add it to the long, and growing, list of wrong-headed moves of Obo the Clown.

Yojimbo said...


It's also a plan to take attention away from the fiscal debates in the next month. Fewer questions about why this administration won't make any significant cuts or changes when the public has an awareness that structural spending is out of control.

So he hit the daily double or trifecta with this pick.

RebeccaH said...

I get a distinct impression that every time Obama runs into opposition over something, he doubles down:

"I'm the President! I won! You don't tell me what to do!"

JeffS said...

"Wrong headed move" is. A matter of perspective. I believe that Obama considers this and similar acts to be "right headed moves".

Michael Lonie said...

With people like Hagel, you have to wonder, what part of "Death to the Great Satan" do they not understand?

I think you are right, JeffS. Obumbler makes noises about strong responses to America's enemies, but wants to put people in his administration who advocate policies 180 degrees away from that rhetoric. If personnel is policy, Obumbler's picks are indicative of what policies he really wants, and what he says is not. The perfect politician; when his lips are moving he's lying.

Yojimbo said...


Only in his case it would be "left headed moves.

Minicapt said...

Perhaps he is trying to provide support to Justin Trudeau's candidacy for leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Cheers

Veeshir said...

FrnakJ of imao.us had the best theory that seems to explain what's going on.

Obama is actually Borat in blackface.
The movie is going to be hilarious, I'm just worried about how it ends.

Paco said...

Veeshir: Now, that right there is funny!