If Hagel Can Take the Hill, He Can Take on the Pentagon:
Glaring signs cropping up all over the globe, confirms what we've been noticing for the last five years. The world's trending to the left, is creating opportunities for a long overdue reconfiguration of U.S. military expenditures. The nomination of a Chuck Hagel mindset, trends perfectly with current political postures coming to the fore from nearly every credible member of the international community.
From Israel to the United Kingdom, citizens are nudging their governments to focus more on domestic concerns and less on costly interventionist engagements. In the latest Israelis elections, voters appeared to be more interested in the price of rent and utilities than they were with engaging the Palestinians. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, David Cameron of the U.K. announced the Brits will be offered a referendum on remaining a part of the European Union. Calculating the U.K. might fare better going it alone, rumblings as these are evident that domestic issues now trump broader collectivism.
To be sure, Hagel's opposition will work hard to debase past positions and opinions, but a careful review of his contested stances will reveal the outspoken Senator has been consistently on the right side of the most contentious issues faced by the U.S. the last decade. Hagel's advice to the President: "We are at a time where there is a new world order. We don't control it. You must question everything, every assumption, everything they"—the military and diplomats—"tell you. Any assumption 10 years old is out of date. You need to question our role. You need to question the military. You need to question what are we using the military for." Understanding the world as it revolves today, Hagel has the right pitch and tone to quell a predictable warmonger's backlash.
In a world truly trending left, Hagel is clearly in step with President Obama and the international community's trending world view. However, among those longing for yesterday, merely placing the "common sense option" on the proverbial table could send chills up the spines of festering parasitic defense contractors, always on the look out for a profitable conflict to promote.
But, as Western governments rightly refocus scarce economic resources towards their respective homelands, Chuck Hagel's nomination is America's signal that the U.S. agrees. With a strong independent mind carrying out President Obama's game plan at the Pentagon, one can envision future military engagements being limited in scope, multilateral in approach, humanitarian in nature and easy on the budget.
A quick study of President Obama's second inaugural speech, strikingly reflects America's new found interest in America. Building bridges at home instead of burning them abroad is at heart of the Obama administration's vision for repairing the structurally damaged U.S. economy. If the President has a free hand in constructing a team of like minds, the United States might one day exemplify, as no one else can, what real change looks like if one has the will and courage to try.
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