CHUCK HAGEL

Charles “Chuck” Hagel was born in North Platte, Nebraska on October 4, 1946. He served in the U.S. Army infantry during 1967-68, and in the 1980s he co-founded Vanguard Cellular Systems, a publicly traded corporation that made him a multi-millionaire. In 1996 he was elected (as a Republican) to the United States Senate, where he served two terms (1997-2009) representing the state of Nebraska. (For additional information on Hagel's life prior to politics, click here.) In 1998 Hagel disparaged then-President Bill Clinton's nominee for ambassador to Luxembourg, James Hormel (a homosexual), as "openly, aggressively gay." Questioning whether Hormel could "do an effective job" in that post, the senator said that ambassadors "are representing America" and "our lifestyle, our values, our standards," and "I think it is an inhibiting factor to be gay." In 2002 Hagel supported a Senate resolution authorizing the Iraq War. But as the conflict subsequently dragged on, he gradually came to view it as a failed and misguided endeavor headed by a “reckless” Republican president (George W. Bush). For one, Hagel adamantly opposed the enhanced interrogation of suspected al-Qaeda terrorists that took place under the Bush Administration. The senator called such tactics “not only wrong, but dangerous, and very dumb, and very short-sighted.” In June 2005, he said that a major reason why the U.S. was “losing the image war around the world” was because the Guantanamo Bay military prison had become “identifiable with ... a part of America that people in the world believe is a power, an empire that pushes people around, we do it our way, we don't live up to our commitments to multilateral institutions.” In August 2005 Hagel depicted the Iraq War as a quagmire resembling the war in Vietnam four decades earlier. In late November 2006, he wrote an editorial in The Washington Post calling for a “phased troop withdrawal” of U.S. personnel from the battlefield, and asserting that continued military efforts were destined to achieve nothing more than a stalemate: “There will be no victory or defeat for the United States in Iraq.” In January 2007, Hagel derided President Bush's proposed “troop surge” in Iraq (which would ultimately prove to be a great success) as “the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it’s carried out.” Characterizing the surge as “a dangerously wrong-headed strategy that will drive America deeper into an unwinnable swamp at a great cost,” Hagel joined Democratic Senators Joe Biden and Carl Levin in proposing, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a non-binding resolution declaring the surge to be “not in the national interest.” Such comments and actions helped make Hagel popular with the anti-war movement. Following his April 2007 visit to Iraq with Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak, Hagel described the situation there as “coming undone.” Claiming further that the post-Saddam Hussein government was growing “weaker by the day,” Hagel was one of just three Republican senators to support a Democratic bill calling for a troop withdrawal to begin within 120 days. In November 2007, Hagel publicly rated the Bush administration as “the lowest in capacity, in capability, in policy, in consensus—almost every area” of any presidency in the past forty years. In July 2008 Hagel joined then-Senator Barack Obama and Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) in a congressional delegation to Iraq, where the group met with U.S. service members, General David Petraeus, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. When it was rumored in 2008 that presidential candidate Obama, who called Hagel “a great friend of mine,” might select the latter as either his vice president or secretary of defense, Hagel said he would absolutely consider serving in either capacity if asked. Like his positions on the Iraq War, Hagel's stance on Israel and Islamic terrorism also became a source of considerable controversy during his Senate tenure. In 1999 he was the only U.S. senator who refused to sign the American Jewish Committee’s statement against anti-Semitism in Russia. In October 2000, with the deadly Second Palestinian Intifada swinging into high gear, Hagel was one of only four senators who refused to sign a Senate letter in support of Israel. In July 2006, Hagel stated that while “our relationship with Israel is special and historic,” it “need not and cannot be at the expense of our Arab and Muslim relationships.” In August 2006, Hagel was one of just 12 senators who refused to ask the European Union to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization. In the summer of 2006, when Israeli forces were in Lebanon battling Hezbollah terrorists who were launching thousands of rockets into Israeli towns, Hagel drew a moral equivalence between the combatants by referring to “the sickening slaughter on both sides” -- even as Israel tried to avoid inflicting civilian casualties. He also lamented Israel's “systematic destruction of an American friend,” meaning Lebanon. Also in 2006, Hagel noted “the political reality” that “the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people” in Washington and does many “dumb things” that are ultimately not “smart for Israel.” That same year, Hagel declared: “Military action alone will not destroy Hezbollah or Hamas.... The war against Hezbollah and Hamas will not be won on the battlefield.” During a January 24, 2007 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Hagel stated that terrorism tends to flourish “when people have no hope, when there’s despair.” Saying it was wrong to assume that “terrorists don’t like freedom,” he cited the aspirations of “the Palestinian people who have been chained down [by Israel] for many, many years.” In a quote that Hagel supplied for former Mideast peace negotiator Aaron David Miller's 2008 book The Much Too Promised Land, he said, “I’m not an Israeli senator. I’m a United States senator. I support Israel, but my first interest is I take an oath of office to the Constitution of the United States, not to a president, not to a party, not to Israel. If I go run for Senate in Israel, I’ll do that.” In January 2009, Hagel signed a letter advising President Obama to engage in direct peace negotiations with Hamas, an organization unequivocally committed to Israel's destruction. He does not the believe that the international community should isolate Hamas. It is reported that Hagel once accused Israel of keeping the Palestinians “caged in like wild animals.” Hagel has also sparked controversy with his comments and actions vis á vis Iran. In 2001 he was one of only two senators to vote against renewing the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act. In 2007 he voted against designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization. The Huffington Post reports that in 2008 Hagel was “solely responsible” for blocking a bill that would have tightened economic sanctions against that country. Hagel favors “direct, unconditional and comprehensive talks” with Iran.” Thus he has urged the Obama administration to conduct “unconditional” talks with Iranian leaders, while continuing to oppose tough economic sanctions. As an alternative to sanctions, Hagel advocates “containment not unlike the strategies that the United States pursued during the Cold War against the Soviet Union,” and urges the U.S. to refrain from openly backing regime change in Iran. By Hagel's calculus, “a military strike against Iran ... is not a viable, feasible, responsible option.” Similarly outspoken about Bashar al-Assad's dictatorial regime in Syria, Hagel told attendees at an October 2009 J Street conference: “I believe there is a real possibility of a shift in Syria’s strategic thinking and policies.... Syria wants to talk—at the highest levels—and everything is on the table.” Hagel's words and actions regarding Israel, Iran, and Syria have earned him the esteem of such entities as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Iranian regime’s TVPress. Former AIPAC spokesman Josh Block says, “The record speaks for itself, on issues like consistently voting against sanctions on Iran to stop their pursuit of nuclear weapons capability, against naming [Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] a terrorist organization, refusing to call on the European Union to name Hezbollah—which has killed more Americans than any terrorist group in the world except Al Qaeda—as a terrorist organization.” Hagel's Senate career came to a close in January 2009, when he resigned from his seat after two terms in office. For an overview of his Senate voting record on numerous key issues, click here and here. In a 2009 appearance on Al Jazeera, an interviewer said to Hagel: “We’ve got an email from Wendy Day ... [who] writes, ‘Can the rest of the world be persuaded to give up their arsenal when the image of the United States is that of the world’s bully? Don’t we indeed need to change the perception and the reality before asking folks to lay down their arms, nuclear or otherwise?’” To this, Hagel replied: “Well, her observation is a good one and it’s relevant. Yes, to her question.” In that same Al Jazeera interview, Hagel was asked about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. He responded: “How can we preach to other countries that you can’t have nuclear weapons but we can and our allies can? There is no credibility, there’s no logic to that argument.” In October 2009, Barack Obama appointed Hagel as co-chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. Shortly thereafter, Hagel published an op-ed in The Washington Post stating that “[w]e cannot view U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan through a lens that sees only ‘winning’ or ‘losing,’” because “Iraq and Afghanistan are not America's to win or lose....” In 2010, Hagel endorsed Democratic Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Sestak's campaign for the U.S. Senate. In 2012 he endorsed Democrat Bob Kerrey's bid for an open U.S. Senate seat in Nebraska. After leaving his Intelligence Advisory Board position in 2011, Hagel publicly advised President Obama to begin “looking for the exit in Afghanistan” and “start winding this [war] down.” Adding that the Defense Department had become “bloated,” he stated: “In many ways I think the Pentagon needs to be pared down.” In 2012, Hagel was one of six authors of the Global Zero Report, which repeatedly stated that the U.S. should consider making dramatic, unilateral reductions in its nuclear arsenal (from the 1,550 weapons authorized by the START II Treaty, to just 450). “These steps could be taken with Russia in unison,… negotiated in another round of bilateral arms reduction talks, or implemented unilaterally,” the report said. The Global Zero Report was strongly endorsed by President Obama, who said: “Global Zero will always have a partner in me and my administration.” In December 2012, when Hagel was reportedly one of President Obama's leading candidates for defense secretary, the former senator apologized for the disparaging remarks he had made 14 years earlier about James Hormel, a gay ambassadorial nominee. "My comments 14 years ago in 1998 were insensitive," said Hagel. "They do not reflect my views or the totality of my public record, and I apologize to Ambassador Hormel and any LGBT Americans who may question my commitment to their civil rights. I am fully supportive of 'open service' and committed to LGBT military families." On January 7, 2013, Obama nominated Hagel to succeed Leon Panetta as Secretary of Defense.