10 Questions for Chuck Hagel (TIME)

[question everything]

10 Questions for Chuck Hagel

You have been one of the most vocal Republicans in opposing the war. Was there one moment that tipped you?

It was a combination of things. I remember asking in hearing after hearing : "What happens after Saddam goes down?" At every turn, the Congress was assured, "Don't worry. We know what we're doing. We have plans." Well, they didn't, and we put our troops in the middle of this. I'm concerned about General Petraeus and some of my colleagues building him up as the most significant conqueror since Napoleon. Petraeus is a first-rate general, but he's not a miracle worker.

(snip)

Is it important that the next President be a veteran?

puts you in a position not to think of war as an abstraction but as a very real event of significant suffering. If you don't personally have that experience, then putting people around you who have that experience is important. In the Bush Administration's case, there was only one person who had anything close to that experience, and that was Colin Powell, the one person they listened to least.

(snip)

Are you going to run for President?

I'll let you know.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1592762,00.html

[sce56]

1. A real Veteran not a wanna be college frat house party boy AWOL from the real Military!

http://web.archive.org/web/20030602211200/

[question everything]

2. This is great!

I think that it was on Keith Olbermann that someone quoted someone else that when the swifters went after Kerry, his response should have been: But Bush is a deserter who did not even go to Vietnam!

[democrank]

3. I`m with you, sce56.

http://www.awolbush.com/

[Honeycombe8]

4. As an independent who lurks here....

I lurk here for various reasons, although I'm an independent. I used to be a Democrat, but I left the party (I have a problem with BOTH of the major parties).

But because of * (and no, I definitely did NOT vote for * either time), I have vowed not to vote Republican for a national election, or an important state election, for the foreseeable future.

Except.......if Hagel were to be the Republican nominee, I'd have to give that some serious thought. Don't know if I'd end up voting for him. But Hagel being in the race would be a powerful draw for independents like myself, and it would mean that the Dems would lose an almost automatic Dem vote in the next presidential election.

I don't know if Hagel would win the Repub nomination, though.

[question everything]

6. Welcome to DU

I would think that Hagel would be more palatable for Republicans than Guiliani or Romney. But, hey, I do not pretend to understand the Republican mindset.

If you used to watch the West Wing, the Alan Alda character was embraced by many here on DU, with the shrug that someone like him would never get the Republican nomination. But now, it seems that Guiliani with his pro-choice, pro-gay, anti-gun record is at the top so... who knows?

And then, the first Iowa caucus is a year away so many things may change.

[rep the dems]

5. Jeez. If you wanted to know what they were going to do after Saddam

went down maybe you shouldn't have VOTED for it. I'm not one to hate someone just for voting for the war, and I'm glad Hagel is now standing against the repugs, but if he was so concerned from the start then he shouldn't have supported the IWR. Plain and simple.

[Colobo]

7. Hagel is a decent guy

Good read.