Senator * writes a book to demonstrate his ignorance

AP/Houston Chronicle:

U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel writes in a new book that the United States needs independent leadership and possibly another political party, while suggesting the Iraq war might be remembered as one of the five biggest blunders in history.

"In the current impasse, an independent candidate for the presidency, or a bipartisan unity ticket ... could be appealing to Americans," Hagel writes in America: Our Next Chapter, due in stores Tuesday. The Associated Press obtained an advance copy.

The Nebraska Republican, who announced last year he wouldn't seek a third term or the GOP presidential nomination, had been widely mentioned as a running mate on an independent ticket with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg said last month he wouldn't run.

Hagel said that despite holding one of the Senate's strongest records of support for President Bush, his standing as a Republican has been called into question because of his opposition to what he deems "a reckless foreign policy ... that is divorced from a strategic context."

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This guy is so out of touch that he still does not get the fact that a ticket with his name on it would fail miserably. If he were running for reelection in Nebraska he would lose. His ignorant statements about the war in Iraq are one reason. The war in Iraq was not a blunder much less one of the five biggest in history. That is just ignorance on a grand scale. It reflects an ignorance of the enemy and an ignorance of what we have accomplished in Iraq.

The enemy has suffered a huge strategic defeat in Iraq where al Qaeda has been rejected by the Sunni and Muslim population. Al Qaeda was distracted from its desire to bog the US down in Afghanistan and sent its jihadis to their death in Iraq. It also sent waves of revulsion at the al Qaeda slaughter of non combatants throughout the Arab and Muslim world.

American casualties in the war in Iraq are still less than those in some individual battles of World War II so it is just absurd to suggest that this war has been a blunder. The normal counterinsurgency success takes about 11 years and we are ahead of the game at only five years. That is not a blunder, but a sign of how well we are doing.

Good riddance to Sen. * (The * is an indication by pollsters that a candidate did not get one percent in the poll). Nebraska and the US will be better off with out him in office.