Hit by friendly fire (RINO Chuck Hagel *TREASON*! Bashes Bush, says we're *LOSING* in Iraq!)

U.S. News & World Report ^ | June 27, 2005 | Kevin Whitelaw

[Sir Valentino]

Hit by friendly fire

With his polls down, Bush takes flak on Iraq from a host of critics--including some in his own party

By Kevin Whitelaw

Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel is angry. He's upset about the more than 1,700 U.S. soldiers killed and nearly 13,000 wounded in Iraq. He's also aggravated by the continued string of sunny assessments from the Bush administration, such as Vice President Dick Cheney's recent remark that the insurgency is in its "last throes." "Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality," Hagel tells U.S. News. "It's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq."

That's strikingly blunt talk from a member of the president's party, even one cast as something of a pariah in the GOP because of his early skepticism about the war. "I got beat up pretty good by my own party and the White House that I was not a loyal Republican," he says. Today, he notes, things are changing: "More and more of my colleagues up here are concerned."

Indeed, there are signs that the politics of the Iraq war are being reshaped by the continuing tide of bad news. Take this month in Iraq, with 47 U.S. troops killed in the first 15 days. That's already five more than the toll for the entire month of June last year. With the rate of insurgent attacks near an all-time high and the war's cost set to top $230 billion, more politicians on both sides of the aisle are responding to opinion polls that show a growing number of Americans favoring a withdrawal from Iraq. Republican Sens. Lincoln Chafee and Lindsey Graham have voiced their concerns. And two Republicans, including the congressman who brought "freedom fries" to the Capitol, even joined a pair of Democratic colleagues in sponsoring a bill calling for a troop withdrawal plan to be drawn up by year's end. "I feel confident that the opposition is going to build," says Rep. Ron Paul, the other Republican sponsor and a longtime opponent of the war.

Sagging polls. The measure is not likely to go anywhere, but Hagel calls it "a major crack in the dike." Whether or not that's so, the White House has reason to worry that the assortment of critiques of Bush's wartime performance may be approaching a tipping point. Only 41 percent of Americans now support Bush's handling of the Iraq war, the lowest mark ever in the Associated Press-Ipsos poll. And the Iraq news has combined with a lethargic economy and doubts about the president's Social Security proposals to push Bush's overall approval ratings near all-time lows. For now, most Republicans remain publicly loyal to the White House. "Why would you give your enemies a timetable?" asks House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. "[Bush] doesn't fight the war on news articles or television or on polls."

Still, the Bush administration is planning to hit back, starting this week, with a renewed public-relations push by the president. Bush will host Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari and has scheduled a major speech for June 28, the anniversary of the handover of power to an Iraqi government from U.S. authorities. But Congress's patience could wear very thin going into an election year. "If things don't start to turn around in six months, then it may be too late," says Hagel. "I think it's that serious."

Bush's exit strategy--which depends on a successful Iraqi political process--got a boost last week when Sunni and Shiite politicians ended weeks of wrangling over how to increase Sunni representation on the constitution-writing committee. Now, however, committee members have less than two months before their mid-August deadline. And given how long it took to resolve who gets to draft the document, it's hard to imagine a quick accord on the politically explosive issues they face.

With Ilana Ozernoy and Terence Samuel

[onyx]

He won;t do her any good. but she;s welcome to him..lol.

[Finalapproach29er]

From a recent PJB column-this says it all:

" By 1973, all US troops were home, the POW's were headed for Clark Field, every provincial capital was in Saigon's hands and Richard Nixon was at 69 percent. And the Establishment was beside itself with hatred."


Lest anyone think Democrats care about country more than party................

[FlingWingFlyer]

I would never vote for a "Republican" that advocates cutting and running when the going gets a little tough. Suck it up Chuckybumps. We don't need girlymen in our party.

[nathanbedford]

Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel is angry. He's upset about the more than 1,700 U.S. soldiers killed and nearly 13,000 wounded in Iraq. He's also aggravated by the continued string of sunny assessments from the Bush administration, such as Vice President Dick Cheney's recent remark that the insurgency is in its "last throes." "Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality," Hagel tells U.S. News. "It's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq."

Three articles downstream in FreeRepublic, we see this assessment from Victor David Hansen:

We are winning even as we are told we are losing. But the key is that the American people need to be told

Whom to believe?

It seems to me that winging about disloyalty and ambition is perhaps appropriate as the last step after a thorough analysis leads one to conclude that Hagel is wrong and ought not to have said what he says here. On the other hand, if he is right, we need to hear it in a democracy in time to change course and it would be equally wrong to kill the messenger.

I commend the Hansen article for a close reading. If he is right it means Bush is right. It means that Bush has embarked the nation on a course which will ultimately democratize and, may I say it, humanize the whole of the Arab world. Then, in the fullness of time, history, against its will and with gritted teeth, will find itself compelled to define Bush among the giants.

On the other hand, if Bush has got it wrong, or if he fails in execution because of waffling and partisan ambition at home (one doubts that this man will fail because of personal waffling), then he cannot hope to escape the scorn of the kind that has been heaped on Lyndon Johnson for Vietnam.

Hansen begins by reminding us why we fight. In my view we are in a war for national survival against a cult which would murder us in the tens of millions if they could. The odds, as calculated by our CIA, is that they will succeed within a decade. One either accepts that this danger is a real and awful threat or one does not. My neighbors here in Germany, for example, do not. They are in Hagel's camp. Given their basic assumption about the state of the world, their view is not unreasonable.

But if you share the view that eventually a weapon of mass destruction inevitably must be unleashed in our midst in the Homeland, your perspective becomes wonderfully altered as the scales fall from your eyes. You accept that the policy of catching every attempt to smuggle in a nuke or a vial of virus is a policy of folly. The enemy must be destroyed at the source. This is so because one lapse resulting in the mass murder of Americans by a WMD very likely means nothing less than the death of our country, our culture and our democracy as we know it

My problem with Hagel is not that he is factually wrong but that we must play this hand because standing pat is a sure loser.

[GloriaJane]

Here's what I just emailed to Sen. Hagel because I'm so upset. I'm not from his state but I emailed anyway.

Sen. Hagel
I just read in an article that you said you're angry. Then the article goes on to tell us that you said this: "Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality," Hagel tells U.S. News. "It's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq."

Well, you think you're angry? You don't even begin to know what angry is until you see a US Senator say the things that Senator Durban did on the floor about Gitmo on C-Span!! And then you read a Republican Senator said the things I just read that you said!!

I am so angry right now I could spit!! Durban needs to resign and YOU need a lesson. Here's one! Did you know that in only one year that 1,889 American citizens were murdered in just THREE cities in the United States??!! Yes! That's right! In 2002 in the City of Chicago 647 Americans were murdered and in the City of Los Angles 658 Americans were murdered and in the City of New York 584 American were murdered!!!

We have been at war in Iraq and have now lost a little over 1,700 for the entire time we have been at war!!! And you cry about pulling out when we lost more Americans in 2002 in just THREE cities here in America?? Three cities! Did that sink in? Just Three cities! Not a whole country! Just three cities!! And we aren't even at war in those three cities!!

You want to cry? Cry about this! How about we pull out of all those deadly blue states??? There are sooooo many more Americans being murdered on the streets of the cities in those deadly blue states then there are Americans killed in both Iraq and Afghanistan put together and during a WAR!!!

And talk about money!! We have spent billions and billions of tax dollars in those deadly blue states for over 200 year's and we aren't winning the war in Chicago, Los Angeles or New York!!! Pull out!!! We can't win!!! Right?

Stupid people don't know they're stupid... because they ARE stupid!

Gloria Jane

[TheForceOfOne]

Liberal polling data shows Bush approval rating way down!!

The worst since prior to the 2004 presidential election!

Gasp!

Could a NY Times & CBS poll be correct?

The Horror!

Well, my God! I guess he is getting close to being impeached for war crimes citizens!

The end is near, we are all doomed I tell you!

Does the liberal B.S. propaganda machine ever rest?
I don't blame them anymore than I do the fools who believe these polls.

We are in a quagmire! The war is lost! S.S. is fine! Gitmo must go! Set the terrorists free! Hillary can't be defeated! etc. etc. etc. blah blah blah!

[devolve]

Hagel must be truly missing the majority of brain cells to think he is presidential material.

No soup for Chuckie.....

[onyx]

We've become sort of fond of "quisling" for traitors in our midst.

Travis can better explain it.

[PhilDragoo]

[ambrose]

Amazing how so many of these arguments repeat themselves over and over throughout our history.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Starting to sound like a repeat of the Vietnam war. The media and the rest of the left were able to deminish support for the war here while encouraging the North Vietnamese to just hang on until we quit. Thanks Keery and Fonda. That was the last hoorah for the hippie left and they lust to have those times back.

Opportunists like Hagel and McCain are no different from the Democrats.

[pookie18]

Thanks...will rerun in Today's Toons 6/20/05.

[Reader of news]

Hagel is giving aid and comfort to the enemy. If he isn't re-elected in the next election, the GOP will suffer no loss. Having so many RINOs in the Senate, you can understand why Bill Frist can't bring his group into line.

[Happy2BMe]

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"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

__________________

[JOE43270]

I'm taking the flak right beside President Bush. Screw that Communist RINO Hagel. I'm not a Combat Veteran though I will stand with all of them to keep the communists from turning Iraq into Viet Nam. God Bless America and All who have and will defend HER!

[Txsleuth]

Thanks for the ping---been busy cooking Father's Day dinner for my children's father....LOL

RE: Hagel, he and McCain have both seemed to take the campaign tactic that they don't NEED the conservative right, in order to win the White House...

Who gave them that advice, Howard Dean?

[lowbridge]

Dear Mr. Hagel:

Apologize

Admit that you are wrong

Please resign from the Republican Party.

Thanks.

[lowbridge]

Who gave them that advice, Howard Dean?

I certainly hope so :-)

[tomahawk]

What a piece of sh*t.

Can't Nebraska do better than this?

[VRWC For Truth]

What a dope.