I just about fell off my chair this morning when I read on the WAPO Site Robert D. Novak's interview of Sen. Chuck Hagel... Now granted Hagel is the one telling the truth. But just the fact that Novak would get the quotes right is eye opening.
The WAPO Hagel/Novak Interview
Some highlights:
After his latest visit to Iraq, with stops in Baghdad, Fallujah and Ramadi, Hagel told me: "This thing is really coming undone quickly, and [Prime Minister] Maliki's government is weaker by the day. The police are corrupt, top to bottom. The oil problem is a huge problem. They still can't get anything through the parliament -- no hydrocarbon law, no de-Baathification law, no provincial elections," which are needed to bring Sunnis into the governing process.
This guy is a Republican right?
What about claims by proponents of the Iraqi intervention that failure to stop the terrorists in Iraq will open the door to them in the American homeland?
"That's nonsense," Hagel replied. "I've never believed that. That's the same kind of rhetoric and thinking that neocons used to get us into this mess and everything that [Donald] Rumsfeld, [Paul] Wolfowitz, [Richard] Perle, [Douglas] Feith and the vice president all said. Nothing turned out the way they said it would."
Wow!
"So," said Hagel, "when I hear people say, 'Well, if we leave them to that, it will be chaos' -- what do you think is going on now? Scaring the American people into this blind alley is so dangerous."
I have to agree with that!
Anyway, I don't often bother to read Novak... hate the guy... but thought you all might want to take a look?