Hagel got in trouble for being wrong about the surge

NY Times:

Hawks on Iraq Prepare for War Again, Against Hagel


The campaign now being waged against Senator Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense echoes his dispute with fellow Republicans over the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Hagel was for the invasion before he was against.  Like many Democrats he became defeatist and like Obama and John Kerry and Hillary Clinton he was dead wrong about the surge.  In being wrong he showed a lack of comprehension of counter insurgency warfare and a lack of willingness to listen to those who did understand it and effectively executed it.  And like all of those people including Obama he has been unwilling to admit he was wrong and that is what makes him a very poor choice for Secretary of Defense.

In fact it appears that Obama is putting together a cabinet of people who were eager to lose the war in Iraq.  Obama is still in a mode of pulling defeat from the jaws of victory in both Iraq and Afghanistan and he is outsourcing the fight against al Qaeda in Africa to France and Britain where they have to clean up the mess left after overthrowing Qaddafi and failing to secure his weapons.  Now the enemy has taken over large parts of Mali.  It is more than passing strange that Obama's obvious screw up by leading from behind is not an issue the media cares to discuss.  I do plan to leave several clues for future historians to set the record straight.

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