Chuck Hagel

I've finally gotten around to reading Chuck Hagel's 2008 book America: Our Next Chapter at the beginning of 2013, now that Hagel has been nominated to be Secretary of Defense. While Hagel's nomination has come under fire from certain corners for various positions he's taken over the years, this book presents a mostly-sensible series of centrist policy solutions, from immigration reform to investment in infrastructure and education and national service. I don't agree with every specific proposal he offers (on tax policy and Social Security, for example), but I certainly can't argue with his denunciation of how American politics operates at present:

"Instead of seeking common ground and consensus, which is what defines democracies, we end up trying to beatify our side and demonize the other guy's. For example, Republicans believe that they represent responsible and wise governance and that Democrats are unprincipled users of power. Democrats, not surprisingly take the opposite view. The result quite often is that nothing gets done; but our sound bites ricochet around the media and add to our files of press clippings and Web site hits. The political fringes are happy, television and radio talk shows don't have a second of dead air, blogs hum away with incendiary sloganeering, and America's problems are deferred" (193-194).

The first and most extensive part of the book is where Hagel lays out his views on foreign and defense policy, the most immediately relevant of his policy positions at the present time. He is fiercely critical of the Bush administration's conduct of the war in Iraq, laying out in great detail how he worked to shape policy during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and how he was misled by the Bush administration into thinking that they would in fact attempt to solve the problem diplomatically and use war only as a last resort. He calls for broad engagement with Iran as a way to inhibit their development of a nuclear weapon, and for strong American leadership as an honest broker in the Mideast peace process. It is, he argues, to the great benefit of the United States to be deeply involved in the international community, not going it alone.

Hagel also lays out the ways in which his experiences as an enlisted man in Vietnam have shaped his views on war policy. His service, he writes, is "why I am so vocal and so fervent on the issues of war and peace and the well-being of our soldiers. It's the responsibility of every elected official, especially those who have seen combat, to assure that any policy that sends men and women into war is worthy of the sacrifices that we ask of them and their families. If it is not, then it is the wrong policy" (149-150). "In my mind," he writes, "patriotism is about asking the tough questions, not avoiding them. It is unpatriotic not to question a government's policies before the first life is lost" (157). And finally, he comments on the importance of effective oversight and clear-eyed decisions about military funding, which position I think will serve him well as Secretary of Defense.

While in many ways a standard political book, five years on it is a revealing look at Hagel's views and positions on issues that continue to be of grave national importance, and which Hagel will be playing a key role in shaping should he be confirmed as Secretary of Defense.… (more)