MORE WITHDRAWAL NOISES….I know that Chuck Hagel has been critical of our Iraq policy for a while, but has he now decided to endorse withdrawal as our only option?
Hagel, a Vietnam veteran, acknowledged the U.S. military presence was becoming harder and harder to justify. He believes Iraq faces a serious danger of civil war that would threaten Middle East stability, and said there is little Washington can do to avert this.
“We are seen as occupiers, we are targets. We have got to get out. I don’t think we can sustain our current policy, nor do I think we should,” he said at one stop.
I don’t follow Hagel closely enough to know if this is the first time he’s said this, but it doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard from him before. In the past, hasn’t he mostly suggested that we need a bigger effort in order to succeed in Iraq?
