SENATOR HAGEL: ... but I would even begin with this evaluation; that we owe the military and their families a policy, a policy worthy of their sacrifices, and I don't believe, Dr. Rice, we have that policy today.

I think what the president said last night -- and I listened carefully and read through it again this morning -- is all about a broadened American involvement, escalation in Iraq and the Middle East. I do not agree with that escalation, and I would further note that when you say, as you have here this morning, that we need to address and help the Iraqis and pay attention to the fact that Iraqis are being killed, Madame Secretary, Iraqis are killing Iraqis. We are in a civil war. This is sectarian violence out of control -- Iraqi on Iraqi. Worse, it is inter-sectarian violence -- Shi'a killing Shi'a.

To ask our young men and women to sacrifice their lives, to be put in the middle of a civil war is wrong.

It's, first of all, in my opinion, morally wrong. It's tactically, strategically, militarily wrong. We will not win a war of attrition in the Middle East.

And I further note that you talk about skepticism and pessimism of the American people and some in Congress. That is not some kind of a subjective analysis, that is because, Madame Secretary, we've been there almost four years, and there's a reason for that skepticism and pessimism, and that is based on the facts on the ground, the reality of the dynamics.

And so I have been one, as you know, who have believed that the appropriate focus is not to escalate, but to try to find a broader incorporation of a framework. And it will have to be, certainly, regional, as many of us have been saying for a long time. That should not be new to anyone. But it has to be more than regional, it is going to have to be internally sponsored, and that's going to include Iran and Syria.

When you were engaging Chairman Biden on this issue, on the specific question -- will our troops go into Iran or Syria in pursuit, based on what the president said last night -- you cannot sit here today -- not because you're dishonest or you don't understand, but no one in our government can sit here today and tell Americans that we won't engage the Iranians and the Syrians cross-border.

Some of us remember 1970, Madame Secretary, and that was Cambodia, and when our government lied to the American people and said we didn't cross the border going into Cambodia. In fact we did. I happen to know something about that, as do some on this committee.

So, Madame Secretary, when you set in motion the kind of policy that the president is talking about here, it's very, very dangerous. Matter of fact, I have to say, Madame Secretary, that I think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it's carried out. I will resist it.

Charles Timothy "Chuck" Hagel (born October 4, 1946) is the senior United States Senator from Nebraska. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected in 1996 and was reelected in 2002. He is a Vietnam War veteran.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Hagel

Chuck Hagel is the only person in the GOP that seems to know something. Or at least the only one who has the balls to stand up and actually say something.

That's the rub for me....some of these folks gotta have balls, and for some reason they remain silent. This admin's flubs in strategy have seemed brutally moronic to anyone who knows even a smidgen of military history. Commanders in Iraq have a similar mantra...aside from becoming embroiled in someone elses war, there are certain basic actions needed and hands are tied to a degree as to render the military's effect and scope ineffectual at best, and a danger to its own and the program, at worst.

There are two issues for me, that seem much more dire than Iraq....Iran with a dangerous, mentally-ill buffoon at the helm, and N. Korea, with the same in the form of a soul-destroying, egomaniac. The citizens of these countries deserve a chance to become whole, and the simplest method seems to excise the soul-suckers, Chemo-style. Not unlike the Jewish Air Force, surgically removed any threat of Iraq with regard to nuclear threat, on June 3, 1981-Osiraq, which was precision, swift, unilateral, and necessary.


With the same sentiment, this crap in Iraq, if we had truly wanted any swift, lasting result, the theme for the last four years, should have been, unrelenting, surgical air strikes, hammering only areas known as safe haven for the so-called, terroists. But of course, we aren't there really to stop terrorism,.. if you wanted to do that, you would slap the hands of governments providing the raw material....why do that??? War is big money.

The rockies??

*waronterror

Adding video to channels (Waronterror) - requested by MarineGunrock.

she was pissed looking wasn't she.