Republican lawmakers clashed with Chuck Hagel yesterday at a hearing over his nomination to become the next US Defence Secretary, attacking his judgement on war strategy and occasionally putting him on the defensive during a heated session.
Senator Hagel’s record is deeply troubling and out of the mainstream
Critics in Congress have sought to portray Hagel, a former Republican senator and decorated Vietnam War veteran, as soft on Iran and anti-Israel, charges Hagel strongly denied in testimony at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
Republican panel members laid into Hagel, with influential Senator John McCain even threatening to vote against him as he questioned Hagel’s judgement on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Hagel opposed surges of American forces.
Even before Hagel started speaking, James Inhofe, the panel’s senior Republican, called him “the wrong person to lead the Pentagon at this perilous and consequential time.”
“Senator Hagel’s record is deeply troubling and out of the mainstream. Too often it seems he is willing to subscribe to a worldwide view that is predicated on appeasing our adversaries while shunning our friends,” said Inhofe.
The committee also dwelt on chapters of modern US history that still prompt passionate debate: from the Vietnam War, where Hagel served as an infantryman and was wounded, to President Ronald Reagan’s call for nuclear disarmament and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Hagel, speaking publicly for the first time since the attacks against his nomination began, at times seemed cautious and halting. He sought to set the record straight, assuring the panel that he backed US policies of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and supporting a strong Israel.
“No one individual vote, no one individual quote, no one individual statement defines me, my beliefs, or my record,” Hagel said to the packed hearing room.
“My overall world view has never changed: that America has and must maintain the strongest military in the world.”
In an unusual reversal of partisanship, Democrats, more than his fellow Republicans, gave Hagel sympathetic support and time to air his views.
The committee’s Democratic chairman, Carl Levin, said his concerns, especially over Hagel’s past comments about unilateral sanctions on Iran, had been addressed.
“Senator Hagel’s reassurance to me... that he supports the Obama administration’s strong stance against Iran is significant,” Levin said.
Another member of Obama’s second-term national security team, Senator John Kerry, sailed through his nomination hearing before receiving the Senate’s overwhelming support on Tuesday.
But Hagel, who publicly broke with his Republican Party over the Iraq War, encountered repeated confrontation.
Beyond tough questioning on Israel and Iran, he was also grilled on his view of the Pentagon budget – Hagel is known as an advocate for tighter spending controls.