President Obama’s decision to nominate former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel and current counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan as Defense Secretary and CIA Director, respectively, reflects the administration’s intention to carry on penchant for secret wars over conventional ones.
Hagel gained a reputation in the pre-nomination debate as someone who is reluctant to send ground troops into new theaters of conflict, especially in the Middle East.
People exaggerated Hagel’s views and tried to describe him as a non-interventionist. But his views more closely align with Obama’s as far as engaging in conventional conflicts.
Brennan similarly represents a continuation of Obama policy so far, an unsurprising fact considering he shaped much of Obama’s counter-terrorism policies – like the drone war – himself.
This is “a team that will be asked to preside over the return of exhausted American troops and wield power through the targeted use of sanctions, Special Operations forces and drone strikes,” reports The Washington Post.
“What’s going to happen is no more counterinsurgency. It will be counterterrorism,” Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, told McClatchy.
“Kill lists and the war from above seems to be the way the Obama administration handles the war on terror,” says Toby C. Jones, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University.
And that’s how Obama plans to approach foreign policy in his second term, just as he did in the first.
You're going to be seriously surprised when he bombs Syria and the imposes a naval blockade on Iran, thus forcing Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz and starting the Iran war.
Anyone who thinks Obama is just going to kick the can down the road for another four years and not start any new war is seriously delusional.
I find it hard to believe that so many people are getting so excited over Hagel, as though this indicates major shift in Obama's foreign policy… it boggles the mind.
Obama is a warmonger and he has not deviated one iota from that agenda.
Killing Iran softly with brutal economic sanctions is merely a prelude of things to come.
Today it was announced that Obama' Sec. Treasure pick to replace Geitner is Jack Lew, a Zionist and a Hamiltonian. Also CFR member, Brookings Institute…
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
These people are inside traders.., as Bush regime and his idea for domination of the world economy was based on Neo Fascism with Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld and others, here in 2013 nothing has changed only faces are changing to better looking and better smile acting as democracy in action.., but the real problems with U.S militarism continues so as U.S New wars around the world.., why do you think they want to drawdown the Afghanistan.., that is to say if this is their true intention.., to send these solders to Africa and pacific toward china and Russia. A new frontier of wars is the agenda and New Politics for establishing the falsified democracy that all ready established at home.
Brennan and Hagel are Washington insiders. We will be at war with Iran by May. Hagel doubled his net worth while he was in the Senate at the expense of people of Nebraska. You'll notice that OBL was wandering around loose while Hagel doodled in the Senate from 1997 – 2009. Obama touts his foreign country knowledge, and he was on the intelligence committee. Doing what, may I ask? It wasn't until obstructionist Hagel left the Senate did we find and kill OBL.
Obama Drone Control got you scared?
Obama's choice of John Brennan for CIA not your
choice?
How about signing the online White House Petition
to End Drone Strikes Killing Children and
innocent civilians? http://wh.gov/UKpQ