In his first speech as Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel told an audience of US troops and defense officials at the Pentagon that the US should engage with the world instead of try to dictate to it.
“We can’t dictate to the world, but we must engage with the world,” he said. “That engagement in the world should be done wisely. And the resources that we employ on behalf of our country and our allies should always be applied wisely.”
Hagel was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday in a 58-41 vote, which according to The Washington Post was “the narrowest approval ever for a defense secretary nominee.”
Much of Hagel’s speech seemed to indirectly rebut the Bush administration’s strong-arm, with-us-or-against-us diplomatic approach, making clear also that he would not support wars he viewed as unnecessary.
“I’ll never ask anyone to do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said, and he emphasized “renew[ing] old alliances” and “reach[ing] out” to “build new alliances.”
Hagel also addressed impending defense budget cuts, notably leaving out the doomsday scenarios warned about by his predecessor, Leon Panetta.
Sequestration “is a reality,” he said. “We need to figure this out.”
His speech seems to be rational, but so I thought about Obama when he "reached out" to the Middle East and Iran.
talk is cheap
I wonder how long before the Republicans start throwing their feces at him for that statement.
WHAT ??? Advocating sensibility ? How dare he ! Stop ! The Neocons are having hissy fits. Get the Rolaids !
WHAT ??? Advocating sensibility ? How dare he ! Stop ! The Neocons are having hissy fits. Get the Rolaids !
This all sounds so promising. The win, the sober assassment, and We can only hope and pray that Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel will be true to these words.. Now we must wait and see what net effect on the ground Secretary Hagel's brave words create. But then, there….. right at the beginning of this speech, the Secretary hawks up a little exceptionalism reflux….. oops " And thank you all for what you are doing and have done, will continue to do for our country. And I also want to address, of course, the people all over the world who continue to help make our country safe, keep it strong, and make America the great nation and the tremendous force for good that America is"
Later we get… " If there's one thing America has stood for more than any one thing, is that we are a force for good. We make mistakes. We've made mistakes. We'll continue to make mistakes. But we are a force for good. And we should never, ever forget that, and we should always keep that out in front as much as any one thing that drives us every day." .Excuse me while I retch…… The lies, the forgeries, the million dead in Iraq… AND NO INVESTIGATION INTO WHO THE CONSPIRATORS WERE….. Where is the force (for good) when you need-it…????
I suppose it wouldn't do for him to get up there at the Pentagrom and look out at his audience of generals and such… and blurt out….. You are all war criminals, child killers and liars…!!!!!! Still the "force for good" … certainly is the 200 proof variety of Kool Aid…. if there is such a thing…..
Hagel, Hagel, Hagel….. You should know better….. You should skip the Raw..Raw..Raw, and cut to the $I.2OO,OOO,OOO,OOO.OO that "defense" gobbles up EVERY YEAR… fighting tribal elders and children in the ONE maybe ligit war BY the OIL, IZRAEL and the Neocon owned MIC can claim. I personally believe nearly all the wars since the Civil War were in some way contrived by those who would profit MOST… to drive America into an unprovoked confrontation. Force for good…??? Who's good..?? The war profiteers like Daddy Warbucks and the like…..
" This morning, after I was sworn in, I went over and spent a little time at the 9/11 Memorial in the park, the chapel, and reflected a bit on what happened on that day in 2001. I was on Capitol Hill at the time. Everyone in this room remembers where you were at 9:37 in the morning on September 11th, 2001. And I surely remember exactly where I was.
Everyone does NOT remember where they were at 9:37……
"Shortly After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001: White House Officials Reportedly Converge on Vice President Cheney’s Office, but Accounts Conflict
Edit event
Vice President Dick Cheney sees the second plane hitting the World Trade Center live on television while meeting with his speechwriter John McConnell. He later claims that several other officials then come and join him in his White House office: National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, political adviser Mary Matalin, and his chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who has come across from the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House. [Meet the Press, 9/16/2001] According to journalist and author Stephen Hayes, “As word of the attacks spread throughout the West Wing, many White House officials migrated to Cheney’s office.” As well as Rice, Libby, and Matalin, these include Sean O’Keefe, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget; Josh Bolten, the deputy White House chief of staff; and counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke. [Hayes, 2007, pp. 332] However, other accounts contradict this. Clarke claims that when he arrives at the White House shortly after 9:03, he sees the vice president and Rice, but the two are “alone in Cheney’s office” (see (9:05 a.m.) September 11, 2001). (It is possible, though, that the other officials only arrive after Clarke ends his brief visit to the vice president’s office.) [Clarke, 2004, pp. 1-2] In numerous interviews where she discusses her actions this morning, Rice makes no mention of heading to Cheney’s office after the second tower is hit."
Hagel goes on: " But in Churchill's words long ago, that was a “jarring gong,” the event, that set in motion dynamics that we are living with today. You go back almost 22 years ago — as Chairman Dempsey noted this morning in a meeting, 22 years ago tomorrow, in 1991, February 28th, the end of Desert Storm. If you take those two events and start charting this, not unlike history, you start to see a picture emerge of different kinds of threats, new threats, and there will be more new threats."
Of course NO mention of the BIGGEST threat…… False Flag incidents…. He's being so PC..
Well I am certainly happy I read this speech…… I am happy because If Hagel does one jot of good for America, it will be somewhat more that I would have expected after reading the text of his first briefing as the Secretary of Defense. Maybe in some future statement, he can raise my hopes a bit more.
Why do you let the Civil war off as "the good war"? Do you really believe it was fought over slavery? No. It was fought to keep the south supplying cotton to the north at low prices.
Nice! Don't forget about the tariffs that were implemented on the south when the south had very little representation. The north feared that blacks would make the south have a bigger voice that's why they enacted the the three-fifth compromise.
This all sounds so promising. The win, the sober assassment, and We can only hope and pray that Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel will be true to these words.. Now we must wait and see what net effect on the ground Secretary Hagel's brave words… But then, there….. right at the beginning the Secretary hawks up a little exceptionalism reflux….. oops " And thank you all for what you are doing and have done, will continue to do for our country. And I also want to address, of course, the people all over the world who continue to help make our country safe, keep it strong, and make America the great nation and the tremendous force for good that America is"
Later we get… " If there's one thing America has stood for more than any one thing, is that we are a force for good. We make mistakes. We've made mistakes. We'll continue to make mistakes. But we are a force for good. And we should never, ever forget that, and we should always keep that out in front as much as any one thing that drives us every day." .Excuse me while I retch…… The lies, the forgeries, the million dead in Iraq… AND NO INVESTIGATION INTO WHO THE CONSPIRATORS WERE….. Where is the force (for good) when you need-it…????
I suppose it wouldn't do for him to get up there at the Pentagrom and look out at his audience of generals and such… and blurt out….. You're all war criminals, child killers and liars…!!!!!! Still the "force for good" … certainly is the 200 proof variety of Kool Aid…. if there is such a thing…..
Hagel, Hagel, Hagel….. You should know better….. You should skip the Raw..Raw..Raw, and cut to the $I.2OO,OOO,OOO,OOO.OO that "defense" gobbles up EVERY YEAR… fighting tribal elders and children in the ONE maybe ligit war that the OIL, IZRAEL and the Neocon owned MIC can claim. I personally believe nearly all the wars since the Civil War were in some way contrived by those who would profit MOST… to drive America into an unprovoked confrontation. Force for good…??? Who's good..?? The war profiteers like Daddy Warbucks and the like…..
" This morning, after I was sworn in, I went over and spent a little time at the 9/11 Memorial in the park, the chapel, and reflected a bit on what happened on that day in 2001. I was on Capitol Hill at the time. Everyone in this room remembers where you were at 9:37 in the morning on September 11th, 2001. And I surely remember exactly where I was.
Everyone does NOT remember where they were at 9:37……
"Shortly After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001: White House Officials Reportedly Converge on Vice President Cheney’s Office, but Accounts Conflict
Edit event
Vice President Dick Cheney sees the second plane hitting the World Trade Center live on television while meeting with his speechwriter John McConnell. He later claims that several other officials then come and join him in his White House office: National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, political adviser Mary Matalin, and his chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who has come across from the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House. [Meet the Press, 9/16/2001] According to journalist and author Stephen Hayes, “As word of the attacks spread throughout the West Wing, many White House officials migrated to Cheney’s office.” As well as Rice, Libby, and Matalin, these include Sean O’Keefe, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget; Josh Bolten, the deputy White House chief of staff; and counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke. [Hayes, 2007, pp. 332] However, other accounts contradict this. Clarke claims that when he arrives at the White House shortly after 9:03, he sees the vice president and Rice, but the two are “alone in Cheney’s office” (see (9:05 a.m.) September 11, 2001). (It is possible, though, that the other officials only arrive after Clarke ends his brief visit to the vice president’s office.) [Clarke, 2004, pp. 1-2] In numerous interviews where she discusses her actions this morning, Rice makes no mention of heading to Cheney’s office after the second tower is hit."
Hagel goes on: " But in Churchill's words long ago, that was a “jarring gong,” the event, that set in motion dynamics that we are living with today. You go back almost 22 years ago — as Chairman Dempsey noted this morning in a meeting, 22 years ago tomorrow, in 1991, February 28th, the end of Desert Storm. If you take those two events and start charting this, not unlike history, you start to see a picture emerge of different kinds of threats, new threats, and there will be more new threats."
Of course NO mention of the BIGGEST threat…… False Flag incidents…. He's being so PC..
Well I am certainly happy I read this speech…… I am happy because If Hagel does one jot of good for America, it will be somewhat more that I would have expected after reading the text of his first briefing as the Secretary of Defense. Maybe in some future statement, he can raise my hopes a bit more.
What a rare American Human Being ! So rare, he should be put on the list of Rare and ENDANGERED species !
It's not too far fetched too see him assassinated. He is a big obstacle to war with Iran.
I hope you are right patriothere… But did you read the ACTUAL transcript or hear the entire speech??? Same old "We are a force for good" Kool Aid… Good what??? Bodycounts of wogs dead in their own countries for the crime of living over oil, uranium or on the land some "chosen Peoples" covet. Our good torture???? Our good rejection of rule of law, in favor of what the powerful do and want to do… Good What??? Good mechanized slaughter of the hapless??? Yes that's it…. Good slaughter of the backward hapless….wogs….
This is one of the attitude needs to changed.., the other is to change the attitude of supremacy adopted by Dick Cheney and George W. Bush.., the last thing is to demolish the us militarism regime and change it to a more human army defending its borders against anyone attacking us. Now if is doable is yet to be seen.
America has never been a saint and never will be good.After Vetinam USA laid low for awhile and came back as a greater monster. Hagel Bagel is the planned smoothy !
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He's off to a good start. But much depends on what kind of adviser to the prez he turns out to be.
Where was this speech reported in the news? Will we ever hear fron Hagel in the mainstream media again? They sure covered his fight for survival from where he was thrown under the bus.
But it can refuse AID to States like Isreal who are doing everything possible to involve the USA in a war that is unjust and illegal