McGovern: Barack Obama Needs Chuck Hagel In The Pentagon

Published: January 4, 2013 11:21 AM
By RAY MCGOVERN, The Baltimore Sun (MCT)

Absent from the discussion about whether former Sen. Chuck Hagel would make a good secretary of defense is any focus on lessons learned from personal factors like combat in war, as well as loyalty to the president.

As I was grousing about this, my eye caught a name on a rubbing I made from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall: "Edward S. Krukowski." Many years ago, Ed and I studied Russian and were in the ROTC together.

---CLIP
Mr. Obama will be offered more hare-brained schemes like that. Mr. Hagel would likely recognize them for what they are. He has "been there, done that," having volunteered for Vietnam, with two purple hearts to prove it.

Mr. Hagel has explained his overall attitude in these words: "Committing a nation to war, asking our men and women to make sacrifices that no other Americans will ever be asked to make, is a deadly serious decision. War is not an abstraction."

Mr. Hagel would be the first secretary of defense in 30 years with lessons learned from direct combat experience. About time, I would say. No more Ed Krukowskis sacrificed in fool's errands, please.

THIS ONE WAS A HARD ONE TO EXCERPT. READ MORE...

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/mcgovern-barack-obama-needs-chuck-hagel-in-the-pentagon-1.4406026