"History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap."
-Ronald Reagan
As an infantry soldier in Vietnam Chuck Hagel learned the price of war first hand. It is because he knows the price of war that Senator Hagel was cautious of, and later a critic of the war in Iraq, and it seems quite clear that the Bush administration did underestimate the cost of its aggression.
Technorati tags: Senator Chuck Hagel, Ronald Reagan, President Bush, Iraq
3 comments:
While I like the quote and agree that Hagel has been an important critic on the war, he voted for the war, actually.
He did vote for the resolution, but during the debate on the floor just before the vote he outlined his position on it, strongly stating that force was a last resort and diplomacy should be exercised first. He said that he wanted to give the President all available options, but at the same time expressed concern over the plan as he saw it.
I fully understand that he expressed those caveats, as did John Kerry. It did not count a damn for John, not should it matter a damn for Chuck.
Hagel's commentary of late has been productive and sensible. He deserves great credit for that and I try to do my part to showcase his ideas when I come across them. (Not like it matters, no one reads my blog.) However, the only Senator worthy of praise for this resolution was Byrd, in my humble opinion.
It's nice to put counterpoints in the Congressional record, and I am sure a consensus will build in history that enough people had a bad feeling about Iraq that it should have given pause to the administration -- of course the administration has shown the quality of the blinders they wear. But, the material impact is the vote.
There are thousands of dead and many thousands of wounded as a result.
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