The puzzle of the Chuck Hagel nomination for defense secretary is that you normally choose someone of the other party for your Cabinet to indicate a move to the center, but, as The Post’s editorial board pointed out, Hagel’s foreign policy views are to the left of Barack Obama’s, let alone the GOP’s. Indeed, they are at the fringe of the entire Senate.
So what’s going on? Message-sending. Obama won reelection. He no longer has to trim, to appear more moderate than his true instincts. He has the “flexibility” to be authentically Obama.
Hence the Hagel choice: Under the guise of centrist bipartisanship, it allows the president to leave the constrained first-term Obama behind and follow his natural Hagel-like foreign policy inclinations. On three pressing issues, in particular:
(1) Military Spending
Current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in August 2011 that the scheduled automatic $600 billion defense cuts (”sequestration”) would result in “hollowing out the force,” which would be “devastating.” And he strongly hinted that he might resign rather than enact them.
Asked about Panetta’s remarks, Hagel called the Pentagon “bloated” and needing “to be pared down.” Just the man you’d want to carry out a U.S. disarmament that will shrink America to what Obama thinks is its proper size on the world stage; i.e., smaller. The overweening superpower that Obama promiscuously chided in his global we-have-sinned tour is poised for reduction, not only to fund the bulging welfare state — like Europe’s postwar choice of social spending over international relevance — but to recalibrate America’s proper role in the world.
Read More at the Washington Post . By Charles Krauthammer.
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Yes the military budget is GROSSLY too big! It is too big to the extreme!
Consider this: The US military recently passed was 633 BILLION dollars. This is equal to the rest of the world COMBINED! I ask you; how much is too much?
Michael– Deo Vindicabamur
Thank you for posing that question, Mike!
Chuck Hagel has to be a subversive, anti-military and anti-American and anti-Israel advocate or the Obama Regime would not have selected him. It is time for the Republican Party to Purge Itself of the Chuck Hagel’s or just go ahead and tell the truth and say that the Establishment Republican Party is the Twin Sister of the Democrat Party, and both of them are Big Government, Anti-Liberty Parties. Time for a Real Change in America by Creating a Legitimate Two Party System to challenge the One Big Government, Anti-Liberty Party we now have, who Hide behind the Democrat or Republican Label, where at the end of the day, they are all Traitors of the USA and Legitimate Citizens that make Up One Big Party that Puts On Dog and Pony Shows to give the illusion that we truly have a Divided Government with folks fighting for our rights. This is a Joke and if you believe this joke, you likely believe in TV Wrestling as well and you also probably believe that one day the Old Wiley Coyote will actually catch that smart-assed Beep-Beep Roadrunner.
I known this for a long long time. They will not listen to you or believe you. There has not been 2 parties in this government for a long long time. The boil burst in obama’s reign and all the pus oozed out. The entire government et al are democrats. Enough said.
I am posting everyplace I am allowed to. I do not think it will do any good, but I have to try. I hope you do the same.
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