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Defense Secretary Hagel to DoD: Furloughs to Last Through At Least Next Year, Will Likely Get Worse

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Photo Credit: APThe audience gasped in surprise and gave a few low whistles as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered the news that furloughs, which have forced a 20 percent pay cut on most of the military’s civilian workforce, probably will continue next year, and it might get worse.

“Those are the facts of life,” Hagel told about 300 Defense Department employees, most of them middle-aged civilians, last week at an Air Force reception hall on a military base in Charleston.

Future layoffs also are possible for the department’s civilian workforce of more than 800,000 employees, Hagel said, if Congress fails to stem the cuts in the next budget year, which starts Oct. 1.

On the heels of the department’s first furlough day, and in three days of visits with members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, Hagel played the unenviable role of messenger to a frustrated and fearful workforce coping with the inevitability of a spending squeeze at the end of more than a decade of constant and costly war.

The fiscal crunch also lays bare the politically unpopular, if perhaps necessary, need to bring runaway military costs in line with most of the rest of the American public that has struggled economically for years.

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Even In Afghanistan, A Focus On Budget Battles Of Washington

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Photo Credit: Secretary of Defense

The new defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, arrived at this rugged security outpost situated along a ratline of insurgent infiltration from Pakistan to talk to American troops about the war.

Instead, the soldiers wanted to hear only about the budget battle back in Washington – in particular, how steep reductions in spending for the Pentagon would affect their careers, their salaries and their health care benefits, and their eventual retirements. Perhaps that could be viewed as a positive sign of the status of combat operations in Afghanistan.

As Afghan forces take the lead in securing their own country, members of the 101st Airborne Division’s First Brigade Combat Team were not so concerned about the quality of their body armor, or the details of counterinsurgency tactics, or whether there was a slackening of support for the war back home. Those are the sorts of things that usually come up when a defense secretary convenes a town-hall-style meeting with troops in the combat zone.

In his opening remarks delivered this weekend at the forward operating base, located in Jalalabad, a strategic crossroads in eastern Nangarhar Province, Mr. Hagel discussed the war effort, of course, and thanked the troops for their service to the nation. And he pledged to always keep at the forefront the needs of America’s service personnel and their families.

Then he opened up the dialogue to questions. Not a single one was about the war effort.

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Afghan President Alleges US Conspiracy with Taliban to Keep International Forces in Afghanistan

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Photo Credit: AP

A series of security problems and fractured relations with Afghan leaders plagued Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s first trip here as Pentagon chief, including the Afghan president’s accusations that the U.S. and the Taliban are working in concert to show that violence in the country will worsen if most coalition troops leave.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Joseph Dunford, quickly rejected the charges President Hamid Karzai made Sunday as “categorically false.” But the accusations were just the latest in a series of disputes that have frayed relations between the two nations as the U.S. works to wind down the war and turn the country’s security over to the Afghans.

Speaking to reporters shortly after Karzai made the comments, Dunford said the Afghan leader has never expressed such views to him but said it was understandable that tensions would arise as the coalition balances the need to complete its mission with the Afghans’ move to exercise more sovereignty.

“We have fought too hard over the past 12 years, we have shed too much blood over the past 12 years, we have done too much to help the Afghan security forces grow over the last 12 years to ever think that violence or instability would be to our advantage,” said Dunford.

Dunford’s comments came, however, soon after U.S. officials cancelled a news conference with Hagel and Karzai because of a security threat – just a day after a suicide bomber on a bicycle struck outside the Afghan Defense Ministry, killing nine Afghan civilians and wounding 14 others. Hagel heard the explosion from the safe location where he was meeting with Afghan officials but was never in danger.

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The Senate’s Shameful Behavior: Not One Word of Debate on Hagel’s Defense Nomination

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One reason the left is winning is that they fight to the mat for their principles (such that they are). So you have to give them a lot of credit – they have the passion and the willingness to fight to win. Republicans, on the other hand, continue to play footsies, contributing to the nation’s peril.

“The most deliberative body in the world” put up a charade for several weeks, with now nary a word of debate on the Senate floor. Don’t they even want the opportunity to grand-stand ? Apparently not.

Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska), who served two terms from 1997 to 2009, has been confirmed as Secretary of Defense, the position which represents the primary purpose of our federal government – to protect and defend our nation (and hopefully our Constitution). One group who did support Hagel’s nomination (besides the Democrats) ? Iran. God help us.

Despite grave concerns by many Republican Senators (and by some actual conservatives), Hagel was approved for a final vote by a whopping vote of 71 – 27, without a single word of debate. His anti-Jewish sentiment is legendary, yet the political nation gives a collective shrug, since it’s only the Jews we’re talking about.

Yet key Senators indicated grave concerns that makes one wonder exactly what ARE the principles that guide their decisions ? “Compromise” can be a good thing in politics (and marriage), IF both sides participate, and they both have common goals.

John McCain (R-Arizona) said just this past Sunday that “Hagel was not qualified to be Defense Secretary”. Yet he voted to allow Hagel’s name to come for a vote.

Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) gives the apparent new standard on Defense Secretaries, “He’s as good as we are going to get.” So forget about the USA being the best, we now just take whoever shows up.

The most curious vote came from Rand Paul, who’s been unafraid to stand on principle. Yet he deferred to the President, who “gets to choose political appointees.” While I’m personally a big fan of Rand Paul, this leaves me scratching my head and will cause a significant wedge among his legions of supporters.

Can you imagine the Democrats deferring to a Republican President for someone who was manifestly unqualified for the Cabinet ? There’s no doubt they would throw a stink (under MSM cover), and hand the Republicans an embarrassing defeat. (Anyone remember one of the most qualified men to ever be nominated for the Supreme Court – Robert Bork ? His defeat ended the practice of being candid in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. )

Don’t forget the real vote was the cloture vote, where the Senate gave up the fight behind closed doors (71 – 27 in favor of allowing Hagel to come to a vote). The official tally though was a “respectable” (aka “CYA”) 58 – 41. Here’s the list of those who gave up the fight:

Alexander
Ayotte
Blunt
Burr
Chambliss
Coburn
Collins
Corker
Flake
Graham
Hatch
McCain
Murkowski
Sessions
Thune

Yet all of the above now hide behind a “No” vote on Hagel despite their vote to “move things along”, giving Obama another victory and discouraging scores of conservatives, grass-roots activists, and most importantly, those serving in the military. While we should all be passionate about national defense, I am especially attuned to this nomination since my son will be an Army officer come this May.

Scary Ted Cruz Labeled the New McCarthy in Leftist Freakout

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Photo Credit: New YorkerLast week, Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s prosecutorial style of questioning Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for Defense Secretary, came so close to innuendo that it raised eyebrows in Congress, even among his Republican colleagues. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, called Cruz’s inquiry into Hagel’s past associations “out of bounds, quite frankly.” The Times reported that Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, rebuked Cruz for insinuating, without evidence, that Hagel may have collected speaking fees from North Korea. Some Democrats went so far as to liken Cruz, who is a newcomer to the Senate, to a darkly divisive predecessor, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, whose anti-Communist crusades devolved into infamous witch hunts. Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, stopped short of invoking McCarthy’s name, but there was no mistaking her allusion when she talked about being reminded of “a different time and place, when you said, ‘I have here in my pocket a speech you made on such-and-such a date,’ and of course there was nothing in the pocket.”

Boxer’s analogy may have been more apt than she realized. Two and a half years ago, Cruz gave a stem-winder of a speech at a Fourth of July weekend political rally in Austin, Texas, in which he accused the Harvard Law School of harboring a dozen Communists on its faculty when he studied there. Cruz attended Harvard Law School from 1992 until 1995. His spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request to discuss the speech.

Cruz made the accusation while speaking to a rapt ballroom audience during a luncheon at a conference called “Defending the American Dream,” sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a non-profit political organization founded and funded in part by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch. Cruz greeted the audience jovially, but soon launched an impassioned attack on President Obama, whom he described as “the most radical” President “ever to occupy the Oval Office.” (I was covering the conference and kept the notes.)

He then went on to assert that Obama, who attended Harvard Law School four years ahead of him, “would have made a perfect president of Harvard Law School.” The reason, said Cruz, was that, “There were fewer declared Republicans in the faculty when we were there than Communists! There was one Republican. But there were twelve who would say they were Marxists who believed in the Communists overthrowing the United States government.”

“We are puzzled by the Senator’s assertions, as we are unaware of any basis for them,” Robb London, a spokesman for Harvard Law School, told me. London noted that Cruz had contributed “warm reminiscences“ of the school by video for a reunion of Latino alumni. “We applaud the fact that he has pursued public service, as so many of our graduates have done. We are also proud of our longstanding tradition of freedom of speech and the robust range of views and debates on our campus.”

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Hagel Has Enough Support For Defense Secretary

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Photo Credit: Susan Walsh/APBarring any new, damaging information, Chuck Hagel has secured the necessary votes for the Senate to confirm him to be the nation’s next defense secretary. A vote ending the bitter fight over President Barack Obama’s choice for his revamped second-term, national security team is expected next week.

Hagel cleared the threshold when five-term Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said he would vote for the former GOP senator from Nebraska after joining other Republicans last week in an unprecedented filibuster of the Pentagon nominee.

“He’s probably as good as we’re going to get,” Shelby told the Decatur (Ala.) Daily.

Although a Republican, Hagel has faced strong GOP opposition, with many of his former colleagues voting last week to stall the nomination. Republicans have questioned Hagel’s support for Israel, tolerance of Iran and willingness to cut the nuclear arsenal. His opposition to the Iraq war after his initial vote for the conflict angered his onetime friend, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

GOP lawmakers demanded more time to review the nomination that a divided Armed Services Committee had approved on a party-line vote.

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Commander In Chief Wages War On The Moral Law

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Photo Credit: Gary CameronThe ultimate purpose of the U.S. military is simple: Defend the God-given liberty of Americans. Yet today we have a president who is using his power as commander in chief to wage war against the moral truth that makes liberty possible.

Last week, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta executed a directive from President Obama that requires the military to treat cohabitating homosexuals as if they were married couples.

Panetta did so in a memorandum he sent to the secretaries of the military departments and to the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

“At the direction of the president, the department has conducted a careful and deliberative review of the benefits currently provided to the families of service members,” Panetta wrote. “We have now identified additional family member and dependent benefits that we can lawfully provide to same-sex domestic partners of Military Service members and their children through changes in Department of Defense policies and regulations.”

“These benefits shall be extended to the same-sex domestic partners and, where applicable, children of same-sex domestic partners, once the service member and their same-sex domestic partner have signed a declaration attesting to the existence of their committed relationship,” said Panetta.

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Panetta To Propose Military Pay Cut After Obama Raised Federal Officials Pay

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Photo Credit: US Army AfricaOutgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reportedly believes the military should receive a pay cut in order to respond to the budget cuts facing the Pentagon — a position that might strengthen the Republican push to reverse President Obama’s executive order raising the salary of Vice President Joe Biden and other federal officials.

“Panetta will recommend to Congress that military salaries be limited to a one percent increase in 2014,” CNN reports, explaining that Panetta is “effectively decreasing troop salaries next year . . . The decision comes as the secretary is stepping up the rhetoric about dire cuts at the Pentagon if sequestration goes into effect.”

The debate about sequestration did not stop Obama from ending a pay freeze for some government officials, effectively authorizing a pay raise that costs $11 billion.

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Biden Does Damage Control With European Leaders After Hagel’s Policy Flub

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Photo Credit: marcnVice President Joseph R. Biden assured European leaders Saturday that the U.S. is not pursuing a policy of “containment” toward Iran, two days after U.S. Defense secretary-nominee Chuck Hagel mistakenly characterized the Obama administration’s policy.

“As President Obama has made clear to Iranian leaders, our policy is not containment — it is not containment,” Mr. Biden said at the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany. “It is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.”

During his confirmation hearing Thursday, Mr. Hagel told the Senate Armed Services committee that the administration had a policy of “containment” toward the Iranian regime. After an aide slipped him a note minutes later, Mr. Hagel corrected himself and said, “We don’t have a position on containment.

That comment prompted Chairman Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, to remind Mr. Hagel that the U.S. does indeed have a position on containment — “we do not favor containment.”

Mr. Biden didn’t mention Mr. Hagel’s stumble to the Europeans, but he did try to set the record straight. Addressing international sanctions against Iran for its nuclear ambitions, Mr. Biden said the Obama administration has “also made clear that Iran’s leaders need not sentence their people to economic deprivation and international isolation.”

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Policy Wonk With No Military Experience on Shortlist to be 1st Female Defense Secretary

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It’s a long way from playing volleyball at Beverly Hills High School to being the most powerful woman in Washington, but Michele Flournoy could cap such a remarkable journey if President Obama selects her as Defense secretary.

Flournoy, little known outside the world of military policy, is on the shortlist to lead the Pentagon in Obama’s second term. She would be the first woman in that role.

An inveterate policy wonk who first worked in the Pentagon under President Clinton and later co-founded a respected think tank, Flournoy, 52, has spent two decades climbing to the top of Washington’s notoriously male-dominated national security establishment, winning the admiration of military officers and politicians from both parties even as she remained out of the spotlight.

Although a child of Hollywood — her father was a TV cinematographer, her mother a onetime theater actress — she long ago abandoned Los Angeles for the distinctly unglamorous world of defense policy. She never served in uniform but has been at the center of her generation’s most important debates over the future of the U.S. military, from arms control in the Reagan years to the counterinsurgency strategies employed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When Obama took office in 2009, Flournoy returned to the Pentagon in the department’s No. 3 position — undersecretary of Defense for policy — but resigned last February, saying she wanted to spend more time with her three children.

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