Pres. Obama Chooses Chuck Hagel for Sec of Defense, Neocons are Outraged

by Anti-war Libertarians Support C. Hagel


Finally a decision from D.C. that includes common sense. By choosing Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense President Obama is showing not only his willingness to compromise by including Republicans but also taking the needed steps towards peace by ending foreign occupations. As Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel would speak out against the previous GW Bush administration's heavy handed illegal occupations and invasions based on false premises.

It may be wishful thinking, though i always felt we needed an anti-war Libertarian Republican to make the public accusation of GW Bush as an untried war criminal and to demand a domestic trial for the deception used by GW Bush to invade Iraq. Specifically the illegal and unauthorized torture of Sheik Al Libby in Egypt black sites where he claimed under extreme pain that Saddam and al Queda were working together. This was a total lie, though it was what the GW Bush regime wanted to hear as an excuse to invade Iraq along with WMDs and DU from Africa that were also lies. Having a domestic trial of GW Bush for these and other violations of the U.S. Constitution and international laws would clear the name of Republicans in general and give the anti-war Libertarian Republicans a more credible voice.

Furthermore Chuck Hagel would restore the good name of Republicans and conservatives who were tainted by the dishonesty and scheming of the neo-conservative warmongers of the war criminal GW Bush regime. The people of the Earth and U.S. will know that not all Republicans favor illegal occupations and never ending military conflicts.

a petition to support Chuck Hagel;

"Okay, not as "pro-peace" as I would like. But Carol Moore forwards the following message from Robert Naiman:

President Obama wants to nominate Senator Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense. Hagel wants to end the war in Afghanistan, prevent war with Iran, and make reasonable cuts to the Pentagon budget.

Some right-wing groups are trying to scuttle the nomination by making up lies about Hagel's record. Show President Obama you have his back in nominating his first choice, Chuck Hagel, by signing this petition.

That's why I signed a petition to President Barack Obama, which says:

"President Obama, we have your back. We support your choice of Chuck Hagel to serve as the next Secretary of Defense. We will urge our Senators to vote for his confirmation."

Will you sign this petition? Click here.

Thanks!

http://libertarianpeacenik.blogspot.com/2012/12/chuck-hagel-pro-peace-defense-secretary.html




Leftist anti-war activists agree, time to bring out the anti-war Republicans;



"The Crucifixion of Chuck Hagel

Will Washington's Pharisees get their man?"

by Justin Raimondo, December 24, 2012


"For the past five or six years, the propaganda campaign against Iran has been going full speed: the neoconservatives, a small but influential faction within the Republican party (albeit with several Democratic fellow-travelers), have been agitating for a US attack on Tehran, just as loudly and insistently as they clamored for war with Iraq.

However, the neocons have a big problem: the American people are not only sick of war, they are sick of the neocons. The same people who told them Saddam had “weapons of mass destruction” stashed beneath his palace, who told them the Iraqis would greet us with showers of rose petals instead of bullets, who reassured them that the war would somehow pay for itself with Iraq’s oil revenues, who insisted Gen. Shinseki was wrong when he said it would take hundreds of thousands of US soldiers to occupy Iraq — these very same people, who should have been long ago discredited and relegated to the Index of Proscribed Pundits, are back retailing the same tired old canards, only this time directed at Iran. Their problem is that nobody believes them — except, of course, in Washington, D.C., world capital of criminal cluelessness.

Washington is different from the rest of the country — and I’m not just talking about real estate values. In the Real America, nobody believes you can spend more than you can take in — in Washington, however, spending more than you take in is not only possible, it’s mandatory. Outside the Beltway, ordinary Americans want to subject the Pentagon to radical spending cuts, and would prefer not to have to cut Grandma’s Social Security so that the military contractors who contribute so much to our incumbent politicians have plenty of tax dollars to spend on presents this Christmas: in Washington, however, real defense cuts are “off the table.” Out in the heartland, the very idea of another war horrifies ordinary folks — in Washington, it gives them a hard-on.

This is the Great Divide, and it is this great yawning chasm that has given the neocons their power: for while a malignant dwarf like Bill Kristol, the little Lenin of the neocons, may inspire revulsion in the average American, in Washington he’s a respected and powerful figure, one whose lust for combat — albeit from a safe distance — counts for much in determining what course our foreign policy will take. In such a town, David “Axis of Evil” Frum, who has “spent his career,” as conservative columnist Timothy Carney put it, “singing odes to war and purging those who wanted peace,” is considered a “moderate” — because he’s calling for tax hikes in order to pay for his favorite pastime.

If we allowed the soldiers in the field to vote on who should be the next Secretary of Defense, President Obama’s first choice, former Republican senator Chuck Hagel — a Vietnam veteran and the recipient of two Purple Hearts, whose work at the Veterans Administration during the Reagan years endeared him to vets — would win hands down. In Washington, however, as the Washington Post averred, he’s outside the “mainstream,” a “fringe” character who’s well to the “left” of our bipartisan let’s-go-to-war-at-the-drop-of-a-hat “consensus.”

It’s a sad commentary on the Washingtonian mindset that a foreign policy “realist” like Hagel is considered the 21st century equivalent of Abbie Hoffman, but these people live in a bubble where the outdated “left-right” paradigm still dictates our political choices. Yet the majority of Republicans out in the country support Hagel’s basic position — caution, retrenchment, paring down the Pentagon — the very stances Hagel is being pilloried for by the likes of Lindsey Graham.

That Washington is America’s Bizarro World was vividly dramatized when Sen. Dan Coates attacked Hagel for — wait for it — being “disrespectful of the military“! What this can mean when applied to a two-time winner of the Purple Heart, a Vietnam vet who was severely wounded in action and spent his entire time at the VA fighting for vets, is beyond me — but, then again, I don’t live inside the Beltway.

We know what this is about: it’s about the fanatic supporters of Israel’s current extremist government demanding absolute fealty to Tel Aviv. The “Emergency Committee for Israel” is running television ads in the Washington, D.C. area screeching that “Hagel is not an option.” They get to determine what America’s options are, don’tcha know — and that’s been true for too long.

But maybe not for much longer. The Isra-bots know this is a test case, a challenge to their hegemony in the foreign policy realm: if Hagel is nominated and confirmed, their power is broken. That’s why they’re going all out to defeat him — and it’s a campaign rife with unintentional humor.

The latest mudball to be flung at Hagel is the allegation that he’s a “homophobe.” I put the word in quotes because it’s one of those made-up words — and made up “crimes” — that medicalize differences of opinion and are meant to bully people into submitting to a set of rigid ideological (and cultural) assumptions. So the charge is BS from the get go, but as to the substance of the accusation — you knew I’d get to that — it involves Hagel’s unfortunate interaction with James C. Hormel, a major Democratic party contributor who managed to get appointed Ambassador to Luxembourg (after Fiji made it clear he might get arrested for his sexual orientation) by Bill Clinton. Hagel accused Hormel of being “aggressively gay” — a phrase that now will go down in history as one of the more absurd examples of the aforesaid “homophobia” we’re all supposed to think is well behind us."

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2012/12/23/the-crucifixion-of-chuck-hagel/


Though i have had harsh words for Obama when he does wrong, i can also give kind words for Obama when he does make a correct decision. The choice of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense is very empowering for the anti-war Libertarians and Republicans who live under the shadow of the deceptive warmongering neo-conservative cabal. The root word of conservative is to conserve, not to waste billions of taxpayer dollars on never-ending wars. The neo-con cabal is nothing more than the public relations wing of the military-industrial complex.

There was never any agreement to CON the people to SERVE the military-industrial complex. We have plenty of work to do here in North America with upcoming flooding and drought crisis from climate change that we cannot be the global police force any longer even if it is expected of us by certain nations like Israel. There will always be terrorists and misguided individuals who will seek to do harm to people, though that requires a police force with mental health knowledge as most religious fundamentalist terrorists like Al Queda are simply heavily armed individuals with collective mental illness and shared grandiose delusions.

If we need any armies at all it should be an army of psychiatrists and instead of Gitmo more padded cells, including some for the Christian-Zionist religious fundamentalists here (CUFI, AIPAC) and in Israel (Likud) who have hijacked our collective sanity with their religious dogma.



Any E.T. visitors to Earth, Alligatorian or otherwise are distressed to the upmost degree by the human wars over religion and petroleum based resources. Their suggestion is to think and ask each question with;


"Is it good for the species AND the planet?"

The only religion humans really truly need is one that recognizes ALL LIFE as sacred, and their only gods needs to be their planet, air, water, sun, clouds, plants and animals including one another.



Global peace can begin in just one day;

"so far away, it's just one day"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCxoZ8GzOTU


The E.T. Alligatorians suggest a global mission to Mars with U.S. and China as leading partners. China also has an effective mag-lev rail system that could become expanded with the floodland to drought pipeline project. Coincidentally China and the U.S. are the ONLY two nations that have their closest genetic relatives, the alligators, living here on Earth.

Though i remain a cynic a little good news can go a long way...




"Conservative Republicans, outwardly opposing Hagel, are gearing up for a fight in his confirmation process"

by John Glaser, January 06, 2013

President Obama announced his nomination of former GOP Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel for his next Secretary of Defense at some point on Monday, as conservatives prepare for grueling hearings to block his nomination.

Hagel has been the rumored presumptive nominee for weeks, and the Republican Party’s dismissive reaction to his potential nomination put in doubt the Obama administration’s willingness to finally pick him.

Hagel is a bit of an outsider when it comes to his own Republican Party: he’s less inclined to intervene militarily abroad, favors a more diplomatic and less belligerent approach to countries like China and Iran, and has criticized the Israel lobby’s disproportionate influence in Congress.

Some Republicans have simply expressed a reserved interest in a thorough confirmation hearing for Hagel.

“I’m going to take a look at all the things Chuck has said over the years,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on ABC’s This Week. “I’m going to want to see how the hearings go.”

But the more conservative, hawkish-on-foreign-policy GOPers are downright livid and outwardly opposing Hagel.

“This is an in-your-face nomination by the president,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said. “This is a controversial pick.”

Some have claimed the passionate hostility towards Hagel’s slightly less hawkish views is a result of Congress taking cues from the Israel lobby.

But some Israeli sources have said they don’t care too much about Hagel’s views on Israel – US policy towards Israel won’t fundamentally change with or without him. They are primarily concerned about his less belligerent views on Iran.

But the Israeli’s would be upset about virtually any nominee on those grounds, given the fact that the Netanyahu government went so far as to consider provoking unnecessary war with Iran in an attempt to indirectly drag the US into bombing Iran.

It’s interesting to note that members of Congress like Lindsey Graham are more loyal to Israel even after it tried to surreptitiously drag the US into war, than they are to a longtime member of their own party.

http://news.antiwar.com/2013/01/06/obama-to-nominate-chuck-hagel-for-defense-secretary/

Hagel is a repulsive homophobe.

Zionist neo-conservatives are joined by neo-liberals in their attack on Chuck Hagel;



"Maddow slams Hagel, to neocon applause"

by Philip Weiss on December 22, 2012 36

The war against Chuck Hagel to be Defense Secretary continues. Rachel Maddow concludes this short segment, "Sorry, Charlie" on Chuck Hagel's homophobic comment of 14 years ago with the statement, "I do not know if President Obama wants to nominate Chuck Hagel or not. But if he is, so far it's not going all that well."

Hagel has apologized for the statement.

"My comments 14 years ago in 1998 were insensitive," he said, NBC News reported. "They do not reflect my views or the totality of my public record, and I apologize to Ambassador Hormel and any LGBT Americans who may question my commitment to their civil rights.”

But Maddow picked up a Washington Post item saying that the object of the 1998 slur, James Hormel, does not accept Hagel's apology.

Notes a friend: Dan Senor is retweeting the criticism of Hagel. This gives the lobby the cover they need. Remember after they sank Chas Freeman they claimed it was all about China and Saudi Arabia. They need a smokescreen to say it wasn't all about Israel.

Andrew Sullivan has characterized this as a "classic" underhanded smear campaign, and pointed out that Hagel voted in 2006 to oppose a ban on same-sex marriage:

A secretary of defense nominee should not be disqualified because he said something retrograde on a non-defense issue fifteen years ago. In the most dangerous scenario gay activists have faced - a potential constitutional amendment to consign us permanently to second class status - Hagel voted no.

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/12/maddow-neocon-applause.html



Here's the other half of the strange bedfellows who have joined forced to block the nomination of Chuck Hagel for Sec. of Defense;





"Christian Extreme Right and AIPAC"

AIPAC Goes All the Way with Hagee



Rev. Hagee Does AIPAC


A real historic turning point came for aipac when it opened up its coveted platform to Rev. John Hagee, who is founder of the organization "Christians United for Israel" (CUFI) at their annual Policy Conference (March 2007) in Washington DC . He was a keynote speaker on Sunday night, and the response to his speech (that can be read in full here) was enthusiastic overall. Yet even among aipac faithful there was trepidation. After all, Hagee's agenda, like that of the Christian Zionist Right in general, is extremely militaristic (he believes that the coming "nuclear showdown with Iran is a certainty"). He even has implied support for Yigal Amir, the assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He opposes any compromise with Palestinians. Hagee's ideology also is anti-Semitic in that he believes that the "rebellion" of the Jews caused the Holocaust, and that the Holocaust was God's way of forcing Jews to move to Israel. So this is a new and dangerous alliance, an embrace of a real loony ideology. Thanks to the leadership of AIPAC, the likes of Hagee has now been brought to the mainstream. He shares a stage not only with Dick Cheney but also with "liberal" Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Strange bedfellows indeed.


http://stopaipac.org/christianright.htm

IF Chuck Hagel remains a "homophobe" as those who attack him assert, then would those attackers please provide a reasonable answer to the following question;

Since Pres. Obama chose to repeal "Don't ask, Don't tell" policy in the military, WHY then would he choose to nominate someone who he thought was homophobic for Sec. of Defense?