I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Barry

“Oddly, Walt’s endorsement of the Hagel nomination is proof enough for Bill Kristol and his band of neoconservative Orcs that Hagel is the second coming of Adolf Hitler — but never mind. Trying to discern an internal consistency in the hysterical ululations of this crowd is like searching for meaning in the squeals and squawks of chickens in the barnyard: it’s just a lot of noise, signifying nothing.” – Justin Raimondo, “The Paranoid Style of the Israel Lobby.”

“In Washington today, Hagel’s views are mostly associated with those of Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Hagel calls himself a “principled realist.” He remains skeptical of American attempts to foster democracy through unilateral intervention. He calls for the United States to create a “new world order” by reforming and reshaping international organizations to take account of the rise of countries like China, India, and Brazil. He wants the United States to understand the limits of its power to unilaterally effect events, whether in Syria or Iran. He backed the Obama administration’s decisions to leave Iraq and to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014. He has energetically backed the “peace process” and a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine.” – John B. Judis, “Don’t Let Chuck Hagel’s Hardline Israel Critics Sink His Nomination.”

Vietnam veteran and former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a politician with an independent streak who values diplomacy and international cooperation, has been picked by President Obama to lead the Pentagon. This is a cause for celebration.

Any political leader in Washington that has made enemies out of Neocons is definitely one of the good guys. It takes guts to stand up to these bullies who exploit the collective trauma of the Jewish people to justify the criminal and counter-productive policies of the current Israeli government.

The neocons are going ballistic about Hagel’s nomination, knowing that their dream of starting a world war against the forces of radical Islam will end in ashes if sanity is restored in the Pentagon. But they are firing blanks in their repulsive attacks on Hagel. People who resort to name-calling to win arguments have reached the end of the line.

The biggest complaint neocons have of Hagel is that he had the audacity to tell the truth about the power and behaviour of the Israel Lobby. In 2008, Hagel said, “The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here.”

Hagel is far from alone in his description of the Israel Lobby. AIPAC is usually picked out as the most anti-American lobby in Washington. It spies on U.S. officials and politicians. Anybody that defends AIPAC is by definition a traitor against America. In September, the fierce truth-teller MJ Rosenberg tweeted, “Neocons are traitors.”

Why else do the Neocons hate Hagel? He thinks it is smarter to talk to a nation rather than annihilating it. What a radical thought.

Neocons think that talking to the other side is what weak men and nations do. But psychologists and true warriors disagree. As Dutch-American psychoanalyst Joost A. M. Meerloo wrote in his book, Conversation and Communication, “Let us talk now, so that we do not become mad animals!”

There is nothing weak about engaging in diplomacy. It takes great psychological strength and inner spiritual maturity to listen to the other side’s perspective as opposed to rigidly remaining in your truth-proof fortress and constantly assuming the worst of the other.

Reuel L. Howe, a professor of pastoral theology at Philadelphia Divinity School and the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, explained the value and importance of dialogue in his book, “The Miracle of Dialogue.” Howe wrote:

“Indeed, the human race stands in danger of being destroyed, because of the deliberate effort of parties and nations to advance their own case by falsifying the aims and character of their opponents. With this frequently goes an ignoring of one’s own sin and responsibility, a representation of the self as being better than it is, and a sense of injury at the hands of the other, as if the fiction created about them was true. The abuse of dialogue has gone on so long that politicians find it difficult to break out of their monological fantasies and move toward a dialogical meeting. What is needed is the coming together of men of conviction from their respective camps who are willing to talk honestly with one another in the face of mutual criticism and loyalty to their own views. If these men would speak with one another not as pawns on a chessboard but as themselves in the sanctuary of truth, the sphere of public life would be transformed by the miracle of dialogue.” [Howe, R. L. "The Miracle of Dialogue." From the 1967 book, "The Human Dialogue: Perspectives on Communication," edited by Floyd W. Matson and Ashley Montagu. Pg. 152-153.]

Taking the course of diplomacy over war is more important than ever. President Obama’s decision to nominate Hagel for Secretary of Defense is a sign that the Pentagon is getting the insanity of the neocons totally out of its system.