Chuck Hagel's Quagmire

Chuck Hagel must be having flashbacks that are distorting his view of the situation in Iraq.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A leading Republican senator and prospective presidential candidate said Sunday that the war in Iraq has destabilized the Middle East and is looking more like the Vietnam conflict from a generation ago.

Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, who received two Purple Hearts and other military honors for his service in Vietnam, reiterated his position that the United States needs to develop a strategy to leave Iraq. Hagel scoffed at the idea that U.S. troops could be in Iraq four years from now at levels above 100,000, a contingency for which the Pentagon is preparing.

"We should start figuring out how we get out of there," Hagel said on "This Week" on ABC. "But with this understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East. I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur."

Hagel said "stay the course" is not a policy. "By any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq ... we're not winning," he said.

...Hagel, who was among those who advocated sending two to three times as many troops to Iraq when the war began in March 2003, said a stronger military presence by the U.S. is not the solution today.

"We're past that stage now because now we are locked into a bogged-down problem not unsimilar, dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam," Hagel said. "The longer we stay, the more problems we're going to have."

The Army's top general, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, said Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press that the Army is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq - well over 100,000 - for four more years as part of preparations for a worst-case scenario.

..."What I think the White House does not yet understand - and some of my colleagues - the dam has broke on this policy," Hagel said. "The longer we stay there, the more similarities (to Vietnam) are going to come together."

...Hagel described the Army contingency plan as "complete folly."

"I don't know where he's going to get these troops," Hagel said. "There won't be any National Guard left ... no Army Reserve left ... there is no way America is going to have 100,000 troops in Iraq, nor should it, in four years."

Hagel added: "It would bog us down, it would further destabilize the Middle East, it would give Iran more influence, it would hurt Israel, it would put our allies over there in Saudi Arabia and Jordan in a terrible position. It won't be four years. We need to be out."

What is Chuck Hagel doing?

He is breaking with his party.

So what? Many Republicans break with the party line. Hagel's RINO status is nothing new.

What matters is that he is playing into the hands of the terrorists.

He is echoing the words of al Qaeda's number two man, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Earlier in August, Zawahri warned the Americans of horrors worse than the war in Vietnam.

"The Americans... will see horror that would make them forget the horror they saw in Vietnam," he said.

"The truth that (President George) Bush ... hides from you is that there is an exit from Iraq except through immediate withdrawal. Any delay will mean only more dead and losses.

"If you do not leave today, you will inevitably leave tomorrow,
but only after (you suffer losses) of tens of thousands of dead and many more injured."

Other than the threats to attack Americans and their interests, it's hard to differentiate between what Hagel is saying and al Qaeda in terms of the Vietnam/Iraq connection.

That's pretty sick. It's not a good springboard for a successful presidential run.
_________________________

Read Steven Komarow's article for USA Today.

"Vietnam vets in Iraq see 'entirely different war'"