Doug Smith on Hagel’s op-ed:

We will make much faster progress when people like Senator Hagel find the stomach to acknowledge the full picture. The Senator correctly describes the actions of the US government when he writes: “misunderstood, misread, misplanned and mismanaged.”

Now, the Senator — and others — must also speak as clearly about the fact that the Government of The United States acted dishonorably and did so with purposes linked to power, greed and arrogance. If our government is now to move forward, it must do so with a renewed fidelity to the rule of law and our historic aspirations toward decency, fairness, tolerance and liberty and justice for all. And the first and truest step toward doing this is: stop lying.

Our government has acted wrongly. And like a family who continues to seek easy credit instead of taking responsibility for spending, we will not find workable solutions to the mess we’ve created if we perpertuate the dishonarable lies that produced this mess in the first place.

When one reads Senator Hagel — especially when he concludes on the note of supporting the Baker-led Iraq Study Group - one sees that the real problem being defined is still the first plank of the problem as defined by George W. Bush’s crowd from the beginning: how to win elections and retain political power in the United States? How to spin the messages through our media and political markets about Iraq in a way that will let political leaders who compete in those markets — as well as the media companies and their celebrities who have replaced news with promotion — get the troops home without acknowledging that those same troops were sent off to fight, get injured and die for a lie.

Senator Hagel — and James Baker — are seeking access to more credit. And they most definitely are not prepared to take full responsibility for our spending problem — i.e. what’s been and will continue to be spent in blood, treasure, values, the rule of law and our national honor and decency.