making it through to become next Sec of Defense? If not, then who is next on the list? And who will take Chu's place? Someone with experience in the Energy sector?
Let's see... wants to eradicate all U.S. nuclear weapons, hates Israel, soft on Iran, likes North Korea, .......... about a 100%.
He voted to allow Bush to invade Iraq and therefore should be excluded from consideration. He was totally gutless. He knew it was a bad decision and still would not buck his party's bosses. Anybody who voted to allow the greatest foreign policy blunder in American history should be by definition not entrusted to national defense because they've already demonstrated that they are too stupid to handle it.
The Israel Policy Forum (IPF) is a New York based American Jewish organization that works for a two state solution and advocates unilateral concessions to Palestinians. The organization does not represent Jewish consensus and lost its more moderate pro-Israel members during the failed appointment of Charles Freeman to chair the NIC.
You are stating the obvious, Sangre. This as been the case for as long as he has posted. The really funny part is that he seems to think he is smart. And continues to post inane drivel.
BI, two problems... First, I never said that Hagel hated Jews. That came from Roger. Second, Roger thinks that because a politically active group of Jews that want a two state solution where Israel unilaterally makes concessions supports Hagel that Jews support Hagel. This is false. 45 signatures were obtained from a group that is politically active. That is a very small number. Consider there are 125,000 Jews for Jesus. This does not mean that Jews believe Jesus is the son of God. Here are the flaws in the logic: First it is wrong to assume that Jews are a monolithic, single voice. Second, compounding the error in logic, it is wrong to take a minority voice and expand it to an entire people. Below is an article from the Jewish Journal: Clearly the Jewish writer is not in favor of the Hagel appointment and he feels that Hagel has made anti semetic comments:The Link . One could just as easily take the writer's voice as the consensus opinion on Hagel as the IPF's. For the record, Abe Foxman, the President of the Anti-Defamation League, called Hagel's comments “troubling” saying that it was “pretty disturbing language". The Anti-Defamation league is one of the more influential Jewish voices in America. Now, let's go back to your comments BI. First, you said, "No, he is contending that if Hagel likes some or many Jews, stating that Hagel hates Jews is incorrect". What you mean to say is that stating that Hagel hates all Jews is incorrect. However, just because someone likes a few Jews doesn't mean that he likes Jews. David Duke likes Bill Cosby and watches NBA basketball. This does not mean that he likes blacks. Next you stated, "It's not very logical to say that Hagel hates Jews when so many learned and influential Jewish folks endorsed him". This again is not true. First, there are not a great number of influential Jews who endorse Hagel. Second, just because an influential Jew supports Hagel doesn't mean that Hagel likes Jews. I can't tell you whether Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein will support Hagel. I can tell you though that they may have conflicting agendas of party loyalty vs. Jewish loyalty. This means that an endorsement of Hagel by Feinstein and Boxer does not necessarily mean that Hagel likes Jews. Finally, you stated, "Clearly, Hagel does not hate Jews". This is not clear at all. Hagel clearly has made Jewish stereotypes and backhanded comments. To say whether he hates Jews or tolerates Jews or is indifferent to Jews is an unknown. I think it would be odd to say that he likes Jews though with some of his previous comments.So the only thing that is clear is that Hagel's opinion of Jews is controversial. In the end, Hagel will get confirmed. He will make decisions on Israel and the ME and he will get support and disapproval from Jews and Liberals and Conservatives. And none of this is confirmation of whether Hagel likes or dislikes Jews. Even anti Semitic remarks can be discarded as misstatements, out of context statements, mistakes, and non-representational comments.
His confirmation hearing was a bit of a disaster from what I have read. He apparently mis-stated the Obama Administration's stance on Israel and had to be publicly corrected by Senator Levin. He dodged questioning on his opposition to the Iraqi surge. He seemed to curl up a in a ball and take his kicking over the "Jewish Lobby" comments. I guess Obama already has the votes but Hagel is going to limp into his post.
It is amazing to me that Kerry will be sec of state and Hagel sec of defense. There are so many more capable people in America.
Yes, there are many more capable people in America than Kerry or Hagel. The smartest ones don't make a career of politics in the first place.
