Former Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, rumored to be the leading candidate for the Obama administration’s next defense secretary has a history of opposing economic sanctions on countries like Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, and Cuba.
Throughout his career, Hagel “has publicly supported the idea of engaging with rogue regimes and focusing on diplomacy before punitive measures,” reports Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy. While in Congress, he voted against several sanctions measures and argued vociferously against their effectiveness.
“Engagement is not appeasement. Diplomacy is not appeasement. Great nations engage. Powerful nations must be the adults in world affairs. Anything less will result in disastrous, useless, preventable global conflict,” Hagel said in a Brookings Institution speech in 2008.
Since rumors of his nomination arose, hawks in Washington have been harshly critical of Hagel’s foreign policy views, describing them pejoratively as “isolationist” or “non-interventionist.” His views, like his consistent refusal in Congress to vote for imposing sanctions on supposedly rogue regimes, are boldly defiant of the Washington consensus, but decidedly not “non-interventionist.”
Hagel, although a Republican, has been vocal in his opposition to war on Iran, and his explicitly opposition to sanctioning Iran appears to be a notable deviation from the Obama administration’s approach, which has centered on some of the most harsh and destructive sanctions in recent history.
Why is not wanting to bomb people called being an isolationship? How about using are positive attributes to engage the world.
Oh, please Lord, let Hagel be nominated and confirmed. The DoD needs some sanity injected into it before it succumbs to the MIC virus.
Oh come on . Who is falling for the "dog and pony" show . He is another political prostitute … Just like his other colleagues on both sides . Now … if we were talking about Dr. Paul …. I would be willing to participate in the discussion but everything else is just a show .
Haha. I agree. He at most will be offer some different sounding words while the exact same policies are continued.
Hopefully our dreams have been answered. Without another election to worry about perhaps the real Obama is finally flexing his muscles.
Don't worry. This is just a trial balloon. The neocons and AIPAC are already shooting this one down. Obama has the too many fights on his hands – the fiscal cliff, Benghazi, assault weapons ban – he's not about to go to war against The Lobby. Israel rules.