Foot-in-Mouth disease strikes Nebraska senator.

Chuck Hagel

Senator, and prospective presidential candidate, Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) used and interview on Sunday's edition of ABC's "This Week" to reveal his true position regarding the war in Iraq: "I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur." He also said, "by any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq ... We're not winning," and compared Iraq to Vietnam.

This type of defeatist rhetoric is usually reserved for far-leftists like Howard Dean and John Kerry, and it has no basis in reality. First off, Senator, almost every major war in the history of the United States has taken well over 2 1/2 years. Imagine what would have happened if we had just packed up and left Europe to fend for itself in 1944, or given up on the Civil War in 1863. Second, I think that our destabilization of the Middle East has been quite a positive development. Our involvement in Iraq has sparked a pro-democracy revolution in Lebanon and played at least some part in Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's decision to allow Egypt's first multi-party election in decades. Stability in the Middle East would mean continued domintation by tin-pot dictatorships and the total lack of religious freedom and human rights. By all means, lets keep destabilizing it!

If Hagel thinks that such rhetoric is his ticket to the Republican nomination in 2008, then he's nuts. This country does not want a president who thinks that America is nothing more than a "destabilizing" force.

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