Okay fellow Americans, you voted (or didn’t vote) to change the landscape in Washington. Now it is time to ask these talking political heads to bend over, as you check their intestinal fortitude and the strength of their foundational words.
I am not talking about those who were recently elected rather those who, over the past several years, have shaped public sentiment over the conduct of the war in Iraq, and more specifically the war on terror. I am talking about such men as Nebraska’s Senator, Chuck Hagel, who has taken every opportunity to sow discontent and doubt over the “plan” for eventual success in Iraq.
Here is a quote found on the website of a local radio station. I guess it is more accurate to call it a quote of a quote of a quote, since it references an AP story, which quotes Hagel in a recent MSNBC appearance.
U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel is one of several potential presidential candidates and one of the strongest critics of the Bush administration among Republicans. As violence grips Iraq, Republicans and Democrats with thoughts of running are staking positions along the political spectrum. Hagel told MSNBC Tuesday "We don't have the troops. Even if we did, it's the wrong approach. The time for more troops is past."
Senator Hagel’s foundational words of the past have always included the call for more troops, or “more boots on the ground.” He has filled the media with sharp criticism of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, for his refusal to put more troops in Iraq.
I would postulate that Senator Hagel’s foundational words have been tested, and that the foundation of his advice and criticism quickly crumbles beneath the weight of any serious review. We must only ask the simplest of questions, “What has changed?”
The answer wells up from the fountain of the obvious before we can tap our toe three times on the floor. Secretary Rumsfeld is gone, and the Democrats now hold power in Congress. Therefore, in the shallow echo chamber of Senator Hagel’s mind, suddenly there are plenty of troops in Iraq, we don’t have more troops to send, and the time for more troops has past. I am gagging on my own tongue as I write; because I know that public sentiment has been affected by this Senator and others like him.
Senator Hagel, did it ever occur to you that perhaps a United States Senator should not appear on television that is viewed across the globe, and make statements such as, “we don’t have the troops to send?” I don’t care if it is true or not. The fact of the matter is, that we do not need to broadcast to our enemies, known and unknown, the weaknesses of our military.
Along these same lines, we have heard a steady drumbeat over the past couple of years that the real threat to our security is in Afghanistan. We have heard that the war in Iraq has made it impossible for us to put enough troops there to hunt down Osama bin-Laden. This droning tune was played repeatedly by Democrat leaders and some of the Administration’s Republican critics.
Nevertheless, in the days following the mid-term elections, I nearly drowned in my own coffee as I heard CNN’s Anderson Cooper announce an upcoming report. The tease was… “We will tell you why it may not be necessary to capture or kill Osama bin-Laden.”
So I have to ask the American people, who voted (or didn’t vote) to change the landscape in Washington… just what the Hagel is he talking about?
Copyright ©2006 by Phil Harris - All Rights Reserved
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