Chuck Hagel to Obama: “We are at a time where there is a new world order. We don’t control it. You must question everything...

Why Obama picked Hagel

By Bob Woodward,

The Washington Post Published: January 27

Bob Woodward is an associate editor of The Post. His latest book is “The Price of Politics.” Evelyn M. Duffy contributed to this column.

In the first months of the Obama presidency in 2009, Chuck Hagel, who had just finished two terms as a U.S. senator, went to the White House to visit with the friend he had made during the four years they overlapped in the Senate.

So, President Obama asked, what do you think about foreign policy and defense issues?

According to an account that Hagel later gave, and is reported here for the first time, he told Obama: “We are at a time where there is a new world order. We don’t control it. You must question everything, every assumption, everything they” — the military and diplomats — “tell you. Any assumption 10 years old is out of date. You need to question our role. You need to question the military. You need to question what are we using the military for.

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Comment by Tara on February 1, 2013 at 3:18pm: @Terry... I never considered him to be a saint but I did however like his strong stance on issues such as Israel, the Israel lobby and Iran. But now that he's starting to backtrack on everything he once said, he's looking more like another hypocrite on the hill everyday.

Comment by Terry Bain on February 1, 2013 at 2:24pm

Re: Comment by Tara on Wednesday

Me too Laser. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Comment by TheLasersShadow on Wednesday: I'm starting to like this Hagel guy, the more the establishment hates him the better he really is!

Chuck Hagel's sainthood should be postponed until you talk to Bev Harris again guys. I'll bet you remember this.... http://www.thelandesreport.com/pressrelease.htm

Comment by Tara on February 1, 2013 at 12:47pm: Hagel backtracking on everything he’s said for a decade or more... cowtowing to the Neocons The Hagel Disaster

Comment by apeman2502 on January 30, 2013 at 10:34pm: A British publication from 1958 mentioned the British royal family giving $12 million to Adolf Hitler at the request of German aristocracy in 1930. NATO is presently being funded and manned 85% by Americans but benefits European monarchies much more than the U.S. will ever hope to gain. Thank the Rothschild's Associated Press and the Council on Foreign Relations lying and dominating ALL television network news to get their people in power, to America's destruction.

Comment by Tara on January 30, 2013 at 4:44pm: @Steven Janus... yep, many question marks about Hagel but as I said earlier, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I guess only time will tell.

Comment by apeman2502 on January 30, 2013 at 4:30pm: NATO is the act of the American people giving the European monarchy psychopaths a blank check and sacrificial children just like the bad old days to maintain these monarchies' bling and greed. VERY stupid and obsolete.Entire cultures more adaptable and wise than the White trash killing them should be subject of our respect and care not queen lizard and the two 'ME FIRST' brats, Benny the Rat, and their ilk.

Comment by Steven Janus on January 30, 2013 at 10:18am: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/14244-chuck-hage...

"• A call for expansion of "free trade" agreements and the desire to have NAFTA evolve into a“comprehensive program for the entire western hemisphere”;

• Promotion of extending the NATFA concept via CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement) and FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas);

• A slur at the notion of isolationism (which term should be known as “non-interventionism”);

• Promotion of alliances and international institutions in order to extend U.S. influence;

• A call for the U.S. to strengthen global institutions “beginning with the United Nations”;

• Recommitment to the transatlantic partnership;

• Keeping NATO as the “central alliance in U.S. global strategy.”

Doesn't sound like the kind of person you want. :(

Comment by Tara on January 30, 2013 at 9:14am: Me too Laser. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Comment by TheLasersShadow on January 30, 2013 at 1:50am: I'm starting to like this Hagel guy, the more the establishment hates him the better he really is!

Comment by apeman2502 on January 29, 2013 at 7:59pm: Sounds like Hagel had a childhood filled with abuse and molestation. That's O.K..He should sit this one out.