{"id":692,"date":"2013-01-07T23:06:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T23:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2013\/01\/07\/its-not-hagels-foreign-policy"},"modified":"2013-01-07T23:06:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-07T23:06:00","slug":"its-not-hagels-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=692","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not Hagel\u2019s foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Former Sen. Chuck Hagel\u2019s selection as the next secretary of defense is drawing unusual criticism.<\/p>\n

It comes mostly from his fellow Republicans who contend that Hagel\u2019s foreign policy views are somehow \u201coutside the mainstream.\u201d I\u2019m scratching my head over that one.<\/p>\n

Hagel is a former Republican senator from Nebraska. He\u2019s an Army combat veteran of the Vietnam War and if he\u2019s confirmed he would be the first veteran of that war to lead the Pentagon. He\u2019s eminently qualified for the task President Obama has asked him to perform.<\/p>\n

But this criticism of past statements about, for example, Israel strikes me as odd.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is one Republican who\u2019s stated he\u2019ll oppose Hagel\u2019s nomination. Interesting. The hearings haven\u2019t even started yet but Cornyn\u2019s made up his mind. Cornyn, a former Texas trial judge, attorney general and state Supreme Court justice ought to understand the need to hear all the facts before rendering a decision, right?<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s understand something about the defense secretary. He works at the pleasure of the president. Hagel has spoken in favor of direct talks with Israel\u2019s sworn enemies, such as Hamas and Hezbollah. He\u2019s also questioned U.S. sanctions against Iran. But it\u2019s not the defense boss\u2019s foreign policy that is being carried out. The policy belongs to the president and I\u2019ve certain I\u2019ve heard President Obama declare his intention to stand foursquare behind Israel.<\/p>\n

Hagel has his Democratic critics, too. They deal with the former senator\u2019s statements about gays in the military. He\u2019s spoken against gay service personnel serving openly, but he\u2019s recanted that view in the years since then.<\/p>\n

Chuck Hagel is a dedicated patriot who has fought for his country. Let the man respond to what he calls \u201castounding distortions\u201d of his record.<\/p>\n\n

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Former Sen. Chuck Hagel\u2019s selection as the next secretary of defense is drawing unusual criticism. It comes mostly from his fellow Republicans who contend that Hagel\u2019s foreign policy views are somehow \u201coutside the mainstream.\u201d I\u2019m scratching my head over that one. Hagel is a former Republican senator from Nebraska. He\u2019s an Army combat veteran of … Continue reading It\u2019s not Hagel\u2019s foreign policy<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}