General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why Hagel over someone like General Wes Clark [View all]ForgoTheConsequence
(4,868 posts)He learned his lesson. Some good quotes.
"I took an oath of office to the Constitution, I didn't take an oath of office to my party or my president." - 2006
"We are perceived as a nation at war with Muslims. This debilitating and dangerous perception must be reversed."
"We have misunderstood, misread, misplanned and mismanaged our honorable intentions in Iraq with an arrogant self-delusion reminiscent of Vietnam."
"This is a ping-pong game with American lives. These young men and women that we put in Anbar province, in Iraq, in Baghdad, are not beans. They're real lives. And we better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder."
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chuck_Hagel
He's very close with Obama.